The Wrench     by Primo Levi, Translated by William Weaver Original title: La chiave a stella Original language: Italian Published by Viking Penguin Pub. Date: 1995 Format: Paperback, 176 pages Dimensions: (in inches): 0.50 x 7.71 x 5.08 ISBN: 0140188924 List Price: $12.95, £8.23 Buy online from Amazon.co.uk for £8.23 Buy online from Amazon.com for $12.95 Published by M Joseph Pub. Date: 1987 Pub. Place: UK Format: Hardcover List Price: £12.99 Not available for ordering

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Primo Levi worked for many years as an industrial chemist before becoming a full-time writer and The Wrench is his tribute to the skills and lifestyle of those who work with hand and brain. We meet Faussone, a rigger who builds derricks and cranes and who has knocked around the world a fair bit on various jobs. Faussone embodies the dignity and beauty of labour and skill. The privilege of loving one’s work, ‘the most concrete approximation of happiness on earth’, is enjoyed by Faussone and his old father, who in his time made copper pans by hand and passed on to his son the craftsman’s tradition of taking pride in one’s own creation.

‘This was the central subject, and I realized Faussone knew it. If we except those miraculous and isolated moments fate can bestow on a man, loving your work (unfortunately, the privilege of a few) represents the best, most concrete approximation of happiness on earth. But this is a truth not many know. This boundless region, the region of le boulot, the job, il rusco of daily work, in other words is less known than the Antarctic, and through a sad and mysterious phenomenon it happens that people who talk most, and loudest, about it are the very ones who have never travelled through it..’ p80 Beating Copper