Levi comes to empathize with the peasants, becoming a much loved member of the community. The people did not fully understand him or why he was there, often commenting ‘ someone in Rome must have it in for you’. He was not keen on practicing, but reluctantly did so, since the 2 doctors in Aliano were incompetent and lacked any compassion. Levi graduated from medical school in 1924 and did 4 years of lab research, but had not actually practiced medicine on humans. Obviously the Mussolini government agreed, since their strategy to silence outspoken critics was house arrest in the south! Levi comes into contact with profound poverty, distrust, class differences, spells and superstition in a remote, neglected part of Italia. The title is a local expression suggesting that even Christ didn’t make it as far as Basilicata so they are a God forsaken land beyond civilization and beyond hope. Eboli is south of Napoli, where the road forks inland and the railway does not. He was exiled to Aliano*, a small village in Basilicata for his Anti-fascist views and writing. Levi (pronounced LEV∙ee) was a doctor, writer and artist from a wealthy Jewish family in Torino. ‘ Cristo si è Fermato a Eboli’ /Christ Stopped at Eboli is Carlo Levi’s memoir about his year as a political prisoner in Basilicata in 1935-36.
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