The Sixth Day and Other Tales

by Primo Levi

Informed by Levi's sly and scientific imagination, the fictions in this collection explore a strangely familiar parallel universe in which scientific advances, gone unchecked, create a dehumanized and amoral world where machines write poetry and replicate anything—including human beings.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Italy, Science Fiction, Classics, Italian Literature, Collections

Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Primo Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor whose literary work has had a profound impact on how the world understands the Holocaust and its aftermath. Born in Turin in 1919, he studied chemistry at the University of Turin and graduated in 1941. During World War II, Levi joined the Italian resistance, but was captured by Fascist forces in 1943. Because he was Jewish, he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, where he endured ten harrowing months before being liberated by the Red army.

After the war, Levi returned to Turin and resumed work as a chemist, but also began writing about his experiences. His first book, If This Is a Man (published in the U.S. as Survival in Auschwitz), is widely regarded as one of the most important Holocaust memoirs ever written. Known for its clarity, restraint, and moral depth, the book offers a powerful testimony of life inside the concentration camp. Levi went on to write several more works, including The Truce, a sequel recounting his long journey home after liberation, and The Periodic Table, a unique blend of memoir and scientific reflection, in which each chapter is named after a chemical element.

Throughout his writing, Levi combined scientific precision with literary grace, reflecting on human dignity, morality, and survival. His later works included fiction, essays, and poetry, all characterized by his lucid style and philosophical insight. Levi also addressed broader issues of science, ethics, and memory, positioning himself as a key voice in post-war European literature.

Despite his success, Levi struggled with depression in his later years, and in 1987 he died after falling from the stairwell of his apartment building in Turin. While officially ruled a suicide, the exact circumstances of his death remain a subject of debate. Nevertheless, his legacy endures. Primo Levi’s body of work remains essential reading for its deep humanity, intellectual rigor, and unwavering commitment to bearing witness.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls]

Overly technical semi-SF tales in unwowingly flat prose.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primo Levi's short story collection A Tranquil Star is one of my favourites of all time. I had high hopes for this volume, but it turned out to be not quite as engaging as that other book. Nonetheless it is still brilliant. This is a type of science fiction that may not seem like science fiction to many readers. It is not much concerned with characterisations or situations but puts far more emphasis on ideas, conceits and ironies. Many of these ideas were extremely original at the time of composition but some have lost a little force by the simple fact of becoming real utilities in our modern world (3D Printing, Virtual Reality, etc). Others remain speculative philosophical fantasies as incredible (in both senses of the word) as when they were written in the early 1960s.

I have favourites among the 23 tales on offer. 'The Hard-Sellers' is about souls waiting in some other dimension to be born on Earth. It is ingenious and demonstrates an implacable morality at its core. 'Angelic Butterfly' is a fable about metamorphosis set in the immediate aftermath of WWII. The pair of linked 'Recuenco' tales are satirical swipes at the inept organisation and delivery of international aid projected into a post-apocalyptic future in which each side of the equation completely misunderstands the motives of the other. 'The Sixth Day' and 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Fridge' are written in the form of short plays and both are philosophical comedies of great insight. The linked stories involving the inventions produced by an organisation named NATCA are also very amusing. 'Man's Friend' is a perfect example of the kind of short piece that Kafka did so well: it is darkly humorous and utterly unexpected in its concept.

Primo Levi is the only writer I have yet found who can compete with Calvino when it comes to writing brief, profound, original, paradoxical and yet charming tales in a particular voice. It is a voice I find very compelling.

[Tracy Anthonsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of short stories. I picked it up at a used bookstore while in France when the english section was limited. I figured, Primo Levi is a famous historical figure & writer so this ought to be a good read. It wasn't. This book was painful to get through. I kept going because the short stories are mostly unrelated to each other and I was hoping the better stories might be saved for the end. That was definitely not the case. I feel accomplished that I finished it but disappointed - I like science fiction but this book is just dry and painful.

[Hal · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best memoirists of all time, I find his fiction less interesting. There are some clever ideas here, and some not so clever. And when the plot is less-inspired, there's nothing else, because the characters are never fully imagined.

[William Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of The sixth day by Primo Levi published by Abacus Books (1988).
Reviewer W. P. Palmer

Some years ago I reviewed another of Levi's books, The Periodic Table (Palmer, 1988), for this journal (now in Bill's Amazon reviews). I was so impressed with his writing for its relevance to us as science teachers, that I will now review another of his books. The Sixth Day was originally written in Italian in 1966, and not available in English until 1990, with the paperback not available until 1991. It is again a collection of short stories (twenty-three of them in this volume). They are all fictional and all contain a major scientific theme, usually related to chemistry. Quite a few of these are future orientated and might well be classed as science fiction, though Levi's work is not usually put in this category. I feel that whilst these stories are certainly clever and entertaining, they are not in the class of those in The Periodic Table probably because they are less autobiographical. Although they were written more than quarter of a century ago, some stories do contain a prophetic element, though sometimes the fulfilment of the prophecies in other stories seems as far away as ever.

For example, in the story called `Retirement Fund', a machine which provides fully realistic images for the purchaser along preset themes, called 'The Torec', is described: the description matches quite closely the 'virtual reality' devices that have only become technically possible in the last few years. Similarly there is a story about water becoming suddenly viscous, like the case of `polywater'. The story behind `polywater' was that another polymerised form of water existed, and this particular scientific report was scotched in the early 70s, due to small quantities of glass having dissolved in the water. However Levi's story `Excellent is the water' is far more exciting.

The only inaccuracy that I noted was probably just a translator's error (p.84), when the word voltameter, rather than voltmeter was used to measure electrical potential. Overall I believe this is an interesting and worthwhile collection, though not as well written as The Periodic Table. Levi's novels are of importance in the education of any science teacher or scientist.

REFERENCES
Palmer, W.P. 1988 Review of The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, in The Australian Science Teachers' Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2 (May), pp. 91-92.
BILL PALMER
Originally published as Palmer, W. P. (1994). A Review of 'The Sixth Day' &' The Wrench' both by Primo Levi, Abacus Books,The Australian Science Teachers' Journal Issue 133, Vol 40, No 2, pp.81-82

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the man Primo Levi and if they published his grocery shopping list I would hungrily read it! However, I wasn`t overly enthused about reading a collection of what I had been led to believe were science fiction stories, science fiction not being a favourite genre. I needn`t have worried. These stories are very thought provoking and often funny.

The quote on the cover of my Abacus addition sums it up nicely:

"Wonderful...some of these stories make us laugh aloud from wonder and delight at Levi`s ingenuity"
Weekend Telegraph.

To read and re-read.

[Jeremy Tibbetts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story is witty and chilling. Levi's knowledge of science is clear as he writes stories that are just beyond the realm of reality, yet make us wonder how far they really are and what it says about modern man. Genius

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply humanistic author gives us haunting, evocative speculative fiction. Some of these stories, in my decades of reading the SF/F genre, rank with the best and have remained thought-provoking upon re-reading.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction as written by a chemist. Some wonderful little stories.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has flavor of mid-20th century international style furniture. All sleek and futuristic, but with the inadvertent consequences too. Some slow going sections. But a thoughtful writer.

[Gerhard Schoeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some wonderful and beautifully written stories here. I understand why Calvino rated Levi so highly.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primo Levi’s collection of short stories takes its name from the Biblical story of creation, an ironic choice for a Jewish atheist perhaps. I suppose we could equally call it the Torah story of creation. However these are not stories about divine creationism. They are creations or discoveries by humans playing god.

I must say straight out that I do not like the phrase ‘playing god’ when applied to science. It reeks too much of low-budget sci-fi. ‘He tampered in God’s domain,’ says a character in an Ed Wood movie. However we could say that all scientific discoveries are playing god in some way. It’s hardly natural to wear spectacles or use dentures, but we do. I’m often amused by creationists who use the human eye as an example of a perfect organ that could only be the work of a god, since most of them wear glasses.

Still here Levi shows both admiration for human inventions, and a certain wry recognition of the dangers of creating things that do more harm than good. This ambiguity reflects Levi’s background perhaps. As a chemist he naturally admires human invention, but as a Holocaust survivor, he is aware of the dangers of experimentation.

Most of the stories are treated lightly here, with only a few serious ones. Notably one of these involves barbaric Nazi experiments in which scientists discover humans are only in the pupal stage when they die, so the scientists experiment on prisoners to force them into the next winged stage before they die.

Every story involves an invention or discovery of some kind. Many seem like a good idea until you begin to explore the full ramifications. Simpson is the recurring character responsible for most of the worst examples. He invents a Mimer that can reproduce anything at all, but what are the consequences if someone wishes to duplicate diamond?

Worse still, a man duplicates his wife. He now has two devoted wives, and surprisingly few problems at first. Inevitably the two wives begin to vie for his attention, and he is forced to solve the problem in the only logical manner possible. As we can see from this story, Levi is not too concerned with seriously exploring the dark side of these inventions.

A drug that turns feelings of pain into pleasure sounds like a good way of relieving chronic sufferers, but of course the users of the drug only wish to self-harm in order to feel good, with lethal consequences. Communication with insects results in making deals with them to receive favours. However this can easily be exploited, and the same device is used to persuade eels to act as drug smugglers.

Simpson finally over-reaches himself with a device that we would consider akin to virtual reality. People can experience the life of someone else for a short time, but each experience will feel new. Unfortunately real life seems dull after this, and Simpson becomes hopelessly addicted.

The story made me think of gamers in our own time. How many children are there who will not even wish to leave the house on a sunny day because the hypnotic repetitions of a computer game have become more comforting and exciting than the many possibilities of the world outside? We can blame the parents or blame the children, but is there perhaps a failure on our part to create a world in which people feel happy and stimulated without the need for that level of escapism?

Other stories show abuse of technology. A woman in cryogenic suspension is defrosted once a year on her birthday. Her chamber is kept in a house, but the owner’s wife is jealous of her annual visitor, and suspects her husband is having an affair. Indeed the husband is abusing his position of trust, but not in that way.

There are a few other stories that portray people looking down on Earth, and making their own observations or plans in relation to us. The human race turns out to be the creation of a committee who examine the best form of new life to put on the planet, only to have their wish for a flying creature over-ruled in favour of a biped primate.

Aliens are bemused by the patterns of lights in human affairs, from ships, or from night-time, and note a period between 1939 and 1945 when the light patterns mysteriously change for reasons they cannot fathom. A man is offered the chance to have his soul put in a human body, but suspects the people trying to sell him this detail will put him in the body of a race that is treated as inferior by the white majority. Finally he agrees to allow himself to be placed there for noble reasons.

Sometimes technology takes on its own life. A telephone system begins to experiment with its powers to connect people in any way it wants. At other times we are at the mercy of nature – hostile trees, or viscous water.

Levi tells his stories with a lightness of tone, but perhaps sometimes a little longer to develop the ideas and explore their darker potential might have helped. His prose is readable, but not always gripping. Still these are an amusing way to while away a little time, and the stories do at least stimulate thought.

[Annie Yotova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction is not what one would think of first when the name Primo Levi comes up. A trained chemist, he wrote mostly non-fiction - both in his professional space and memoirs as a Holocaust survivor. It is the latter that introduced me to his writing - his recollections are vivid and terrible and powerful. Which makes this collection even more surprising. I knew it is fiction (although the publisher called it fantasy for some reason) and I knew it is very different from everything else I had read by him but it still managed to surprise me.

If you are looking for beautiful writing and/or thrilling stories, look elsewhere. The collection contains 23 sparse stories - the longest is 17 pages and most of them are much shorter than that. 2 of them are what would be called 10-minutes play these days; the rest are prose ones. Most of them talk of a future Italy - with scientific advances showing the timeline (although as most SF of the 60s and 70s, some of them sound outdated now - while others are almost prophetic). The rest are set in different places and times - from Levi's version of the story of the Golem of Prague, through the title story set at the 6th day of Earth's creation according to the Bible) to an indefinite future where most of humanity seems to require assistance in surviving (the pair of stories dealing with that show the same event from two different perspectives which adds to the depth of the story but it all sounded a bit off for some reason - especially the viewpoint of the pilots). These two stories are not the only ones that are linked - there are also 6 stories which follow a narrator (with a habit of getting in trouble) and a salesman from a futuristic corporation that creates gadgets (some sounding like things we do have now, some... not so much) through their working relationship. They are not printed one after the other but dispersed throughout the first part of the book. I wonder if the Italian edition had them split like that.

The book as a whole is in an old-fashioned style of science fiction which I tend to enjoy - even if not all stories worked for me as well as others (mainly because some felt like a vignette or a partial idea and less as a complete story), the collection was worth reading - it is quiet and almost meditative in places and surprisingly fresh for its age.

There seems to be another collection of Levi's science fiction stories in English and I think I will read that one as well at one point. He is still not a name I would think of when thinking about science fiction but he is readable.

[Andrew Wardle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, and these are of variable quality, but as always with Primo Levi, they are clever and very deeply-thought. He was a real polymath and wrote knowledgeably about a wide range of subjects. This collection is all "imaginative fiction/sci-fi" - speculations about a technological future, intelligent design vs. evolution, and 'what-ifs' about quirks of human experience. This genre plays to his strengths, which were his original ideas and deep thinking about the human condition. He doesn't do characterisation very well, which is pretty much what sci-fi readers expect, so sci-fi buffs would love this collection.
And his wit is as sharp as ever.
Highlights were:
"The Mnemogogues", which may or may not have been cocking a snook at Proust - it certainly says in 17 pages what Proust took many dull volumes to say about involuntary memory;
I can't imagine he loved Wagner, but "Sleeping Beauty In The Fridge" has echoes of "The Flying Dutchman";
"The Sixth Day" is a satire on intelligent design, imagining man designed by a committee;
"Seen From Afar" - Earth as observed by Lunar astronomers, is superbly ironic.
And two sombre, thought-provoking stories - "Westward", about a scientific quest for the hormone which inhibits existential despair;
and "Excellent Is The Water" - a memento mori about how life depends on the unique properties of that deceptively-simple molecule.

[tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

primo levi was not good at writing science fiction it turns out. the stories are dull though many are written around interesting ideas.

man's friend was by far the stand out for me and the only one in the collection i think i'll come back to. rather than a story it's written as a fictional account of a phenomenon. the concept takes centre stage - parasites composing verse about their human hosts. no need for plot or characters to slow things down !

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

These short stories aren’t really my style - a bit too scientific and technical, but the idea of copying a person was interesting. The story about making animal and humans take pleasure in being hurt was disturbing.

[James Bessant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of entertaining short stories.

[Bethan Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as compelling as his memoir but certainly less harrowing. The stories are well written he can certainly write but at points the technical element leaves you feeling enough now.

[Aidan]

very Primo Levi. Feels like a fun counterpoint to Sum by David Eagleman. Spotted two typos in my edition........

[An Bui · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of scifi short stories from the post-WWII period, by an Italian-Jewish author who survived the holocaust. Similar to Vonnegut, most of the stories are filled with humor and irony, while the best ones hint at underlying, and slightly troubling, aspects of the human psyche.