This lecture - organized by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Centro Primo Levi - launches “Primo Levi at 100”, a series of events on the occasion of 100 years from Primo Levi’s birth, that will take place at various venues in town, including the New York Public Library and Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò.

Novelist and essayst Pankaj Mishra will draw upon two chapters of Levi’s last book and intellectual testament, "The Drowned and the Saved", namely the “The Intellectual at Auschwitz” and “The Grey Zone”, to probe his complex views on the dialectic of oppression and its impact on both oppressed and oppressor. Expanding on topics that Levi tackled with growing concern in his latest years, Mishra will talk about Primo Levi and Israel, as well as the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, starting from Levi’s insights.