A Tranquil Star (Penguin Modern Classics)

　　Primo Levi was one of the most astonishing voices to emerge from the twentieth century. This landmark selection of his short stories opens up a world of wonder, love, cruelty and curious twists of fate, where nothing is as it seems. In "The Fugitive" an office worker composes the most beautiful poem ever with unforeseen consequences, while "Magic Paint" sees a group of researchers develop a paint that mysteriously protects them from misfortune. "Gladiators" and "The Knall" are chilling explorations of mass violence, and in "The Tranquil Star" a simple story of stargazing becomes a meditation on language, imagination and infinity.

　　Primo Levi, born in Turin, Italy, in 1919, and trained as a chemist, was arrested during the Second World War as a member of the anti-Fascist resistance and deported to Auschwitz in 1944. His experience in the death camp and his subsequent travels through Eastern Europe were the subject of powerful memoirs, fiction and poetry. Levi died in Turin in April 1987.