Written more than 15 years after the end of World War II, in The Truce, Levi tells the story of his long journey home from Auschwitz after the liberation. This is an especially useful book to read in our in-between moment, in the wake of the great disruption of a global pandemic. It warns us of the pitfalls – mental, moral, psychic – that a transition back to “normality” always occasions, and offers reflections on how we are changed by the experience of catastrophe, and how to go about restoring ourselves to daily life after a long interruption.

Featured Speakers:

• Barry McCrea, Professor of English, Donald R. Keough Family Professor of Irish Studies, Concurrent Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Concurrent Professor of Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame