What do Primo Levi, the author of one of the most powerful accounts of life in a Nazi death camp, and Max Delbrück, one of the founding fathers of molecular biology, have in common? The answer is that they--as well as the others described in this book--were able to face the trials and tribulations of their lives with exceptional courage, and without losing their sense of humanity. When confronted with situations of extreme drama, they all succeeded in keeping to their ethical principles, while fighting against all odds. Through a series of portraits, drawn with great warmth and restraint, Rita Levi Montalcini recounts the course of several exemplary lives.

Rita Levi Montalcini was born in Turin, Italy. For thirty years, she taught neurobiology at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the United States. In 1986, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her work on the nervous system.