Product Description

'We're not Christians, Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli.' Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence of death - for Christ did stop at Eboli.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19005 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-25
• Original language: Italian
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Winner of the Via Reggio and Mondadori prizes in Italy, this is an artistic achievement, exceptional in the evocative quality of its prose. This is a picture of the desolate reaches of Lucania, to which the author, painter and political prisoner, was sent for three years. As a former doctor, Don Carlo earned the affection of the sick peasants whom he cared for. This is a picture of a lost land, victim of feudal carryovers. Here was the sameness of the days, the futile endurance, and at the close, the ban against Don Carlo's practising, which led the author to secret measures in order to help the people... One may question an American audience for this, but there is charm and compassion here- for the perceptive reader. (Kirkus Reviews)

Book Information
"We're not Christians, Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli."

Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence of death--for Christ did stop at Eboli.

"In turn a diary, an album of sketches, a novel, a sociological study and a political essay … a beautiful book" --The New York Times Book Review

"A sensitive and gifted writer .. Perhaps the best thing in his book is the detachment by which he avoids sentimentalising the peasants and at the same time renders their undestroyed feelings for human values' --New York Herald Book Review

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About the Author
The Italian-Jewish writer, journalist, artist and doctor Carlo Levi was born in Turin in 1902 where he practised medicine until 1930. In 1935 he was exiled to the province of Lucania because of his antifascist activities. Levi lived in France between 1939 and 1941 and his documentary novel, CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI, was an international success. Levi also wrote non-fiction and worked as an editor, journalist and painter. He was elected to the Senate in 1963, and served until his death in 1975.