The Periodic Table

It is a collection of short stories in the form of memoir. Primo Levi was a chemist by both passion and occupation. He was an Italian Jew who survived WWII. The stories go through his youth towards his old age passing through WWII days. Each story is titled after an element and some connection between the narrative and the element is to be found in every story. The writing is detached, direct, and dry but gripping nevertheless. The detective works of a chemist are abundant in the narratives. "Carbon," the last story of the book describes a part of the life history of a carbon atom and how it ends up participating in making Levi to decide in putting down the last full-stop of the book which is a fun thought and could be variously persuaded personally by the reader.