In the following excerpt, Boone stresses the struggle by Levi between the shame Holocaust survivors felt and the equally strong urge to pay witness to the events so that the rest of the world can properly recognize its significance.

Levi saw himself first and foremost as witness, and set about fulfilling his duty to write the story of Auschwitz on behalf of all those who perished (the true witnesses) and for those who survived and could not or would not tell. It is part of the pain of telling to recognize that the story must be reduced to what is hearable, that it must be simplified. Confusion may result if we do not remain aware that it is a reductive process which has its costs.

From the teller's side Levi knew the grievous distance between the experience of "down there" and its story. And as time went...