Spanish

Cover of “Si esto es un hombre”, Quinteto 2006

The works of Primo Levi began to be widely available in the Iberian Peninsula only in 1987, the year of his death. It was in 1987 that publisher Mario Muchnick (Madrid) published If This is a Man / Si esto es un hombre, translated by Pilar Gòmez Bedate. In 1988 Alianza published The Periodic Table / El sistema periòdico, The Truce / La tregua and Storie naturali / Historias naturals -- all three translated by the writerCarmen Martìn Gaite. In 1989 these were followed by Viizo di forma / Defecto de forma; If Not Now, When? / Si ahora no, ¿cuàndo?, translated by Angel Sànchez Gijon (Madrid: Alianza); The Drowned and the Saved / Los hundidos y los salvados translated by Pilar Gòmez Bedate (Muchnick); and Lilith and Other Stories / Lilìth y otros relatos translated by Bernardo Moreno Carrillo (Barcelona: Penìnsula). Almost all of Primo Levi’s works have been translated into Spanish. What are not translated are the miscellaneous writings, Other People’s Trades and Conversations (Dialogo)with Tullio Regge. Mainly, the publishers Muchnick and Alianza alternate in publishing Levi while competing for the merit of having "discovered" Levi’s works in Spain. In fact, in 1986 Muchnick put If This is a Man on its catalogue for the following year while Alianza was commissioning Carmen Martìn Gaite, who had already translated Natalia Ginzburg, to translate three works by Levi. In 2004 El Aleph (Barcelona) published the one-volume Auschwitz Trilogy / Trilogìa de Auschwitz, including If This is a Man, The Truce and The Drowned and the Saved, with a preface by the writer Antonio Munoz Molina.