Primo Levi
New York: Collier, 1961
(First English translation published as If This Is a Man, New York: Orion Press, 1959)

Levi's memoir of his experiences in Auschwitz transcends commentary; though it tells of a man surviving the unthinkable with his humanity somehow intact, it never offers easy answers or glib consolation. Read it, weep, but above all learn from it.

Steven Botterill
Professor, Italian
Editor-in-Chief, "Dante Studies"

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Gloria Naylor
New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1988

In a world that privileges newness and immediacy, we may forget our roots—those complex strands of culture, history, and myth that define and anchor us. In Mama Day, Gloria Naylor upends prevailing notions of time, place and logic. A New York couple, Cocoa and George, travel to Willow Springs, an island inhabited solely by the descendents of African slaves and presided over by Mama Day, Cocoa's great-aunt. Facing despair and death, the couple must look beyond "reason" and rely on intuition, faith and Mama Day's mystical powers in order to survive. Drawing on Shakespeare's The Tempest and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (two other survival tales), Naylor speaks to the necessity of questioning our assumptions and valuing multiple ways of knowing. Mama Day attests to the importance of community and the abiding power of love, not only to allow us to survive, but also to give us a chance to thrive.

Luisa Giulianetti
Assistant Director, Student Learning Center

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Candice Millard
New York: Doubleday, 2005

This book is on one level an account of Teddy Roosevelt's descent of the River of Doubt in Brazil, itself a harrowing tale of survival. On another level, the book is an important and fascinating description of the Amazon ecosystem, which as we now know is an important link in our survival.

Fred Gregory
Friends of the Bancroft Library

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Saidiya Hartman
New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007

This is a personal narrative blended impeccably with research about the Atlantic slave trade. Hartman's courageous, honest, and insightful prose draws you into a world rendered unimportant and disposable.

Cara Stanley
Director, Student Learning Center

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Adeline Yen Mah
New York: Wiley, 1998

Mah provides a rich Chinese historical and political backdrop to share her harrowing childhood experience in a wealthy Chinese family. While longing for love and acceptance from family, she models a spirit of hope and resilience that refuses to be thwarted by cruelty and hatred, a true tale of survival.

Cara Stanley
Director, Student Learning Center

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