It is the sequel to If This Is a Man and describes the author's experiences from the liberation of Auschwitz (Monowitz), which was a concentration camp, until he reaches home in Turin, Italy, after a long journey.

The historian Fritz Stern, in a brief review on Foreign Affairs, wrote that The Reawakening "charts Levi's incredibly circular return to Italy via Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Here people and landscapes come vividly alive in a bizarre, often comical series of events and human encounters; a truly remarkable tale.

After the protagonist has regained some strength, he starts a long journey, first to Kraków, then to Katowice where he stays for some time and works as a pharmaceutic assistant.

The journey continues after weeks eastwards to Tarnów, Rzeszów, Przemyśl and into Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil, Proskurov, Zhmerynka.

From there he walks and rides in a horse cart to Starye Dorogi where he lives inside Krasny Dom ("Red House") and works as a medical assistant.