Summary of Christ Stopped at Eboli
“Christ Stopped at Eboli” is Carlo Levi’s memoir of his exile in the remote southern Italian towns of Grassano and Aliano (referred to as Gagliano in the book) during the years 1935–1936, following his arrest by Mussolini’s Fascist regime. In this book, Levi offers a vivid and deeply humane account of the poverty and social isolation of the population of southern Italy in the 1930s, highlighting in particular the lack of medical care, education and state support.
Reasons to read Christ Stopped at Eboli
Carlo Levi was a distinguished Italian writer, painter, doctor and anti-fascist intellectual. “Christ Stopped at Eboli” is his best-known work and played a significant role in making northern Italians aware of the chronic poverty and structural neglect of the Italian South. The book is widely regarded as a classic of twentieth-century Italian literature. It reads with the depth of a travel memoir and offers a compassionate portrait of Basilicata in the 1930s, where time seemed to stand still, untouched by the progress of modernity.
Setting: Basilicata (Italy)
Book set in Italy: Grassano and Aliano (in Basilicata, then known as Lucania). The house in Aliano where Levi was confined can still be visited today as a museum (Casa di confino Carlo Levi).
Original title: Cristo si è fermato a Eboli
Year of publication: 1945
Nr of pages: 304
