Se non ora, quando? (If Not Now, When?) was published by Einaudi in 1982 and won both the Premio Viareggio and the Premio Campiello. The title comes from the Talmudic saying attributed to Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if not now, when?” The novel follows a band of Jewish partisans — originally Soviet soldiers, joined by escaped prisoners and ghetto survivors — as they fight their way westward across Eastern Europe from 1943 to 1945.
Levi wrote the novel deliberately as a corrective: the dominant image of European Jews during the Holocaust was of passive victims, marched to slaughter without resistance. Levi wanted to celebrate the many thousands who did resist — the partisan fighters, the ghetto rebels, the escaped prisoners who formed armed bands and fought the Germans with whatever weapons they could steal or improvise. His partisans are not superhuman: they are cold, hungry, quarrelsome, and often terrified. But they fight.
The novel is unlike anything else in Levi’s work: it is third-person narrative fiction rather than autobiography or essay, set in landscapes (the forests of Belarus, the cities of Poland) that Levi knew only through research rather than experience. The writing is more conventional than his other books — less formally inventive, more indebted to the traditions of the partisan novel. But it serves its purpose: demonstrating that Jewish experience during the war included not only suffering but also armed resistance.
Collecting If Not Now, When?
First edition (Einaudi, Turin, 1982): Cloth with dust jacket.
First English edition (Michael Joseph, London, 1986): Translated by William Weaver.
Market values:
- Einaudi first (1982): $75–$200
- English first (Michael Joseph, 1986): $30–$75
- US first (Summit Books, 1986): $20–$50
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is If Not Now, When? about? Levi’s only conventional novel follows a band of Jewish partisans fighting behind German lines in Eastern Europe during World War II. Unlike his memoirs, the novel is an act of imagination — Levi creating characters and situations from research rather than personal experience. He wanted to challenge the stereotype of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust and show the armed resistance that historical record documents.