Christus kam nur bis Eboli

Matera – Grassano – Aliano. These are the places of the author’s banishment during Mussolini’s reign before the II. World War. And these are the place of this book, which is an account and a reflection on his one year in a remote mountain village in Southern Italy. The people there call themselves pagans or even animals since Christ stopped at Eboli – he did not come further south for their salvation. Carlo Levi, the intellectual from the developed Northern Italy is put into a very archaic environment. The people are extremely poor, plagued by malaria, superstitious, and bound to very old rituals and codes of conduct. All set for a big clash of culture, msitrust, and hellish relationships. But it comes all different since Levi is also a doctor and tries to help these poor farmers, which do actually only expect the worst things from the “Roman” government. Many of the fundamental cultural differences persist until today.
I visited those three places on my last trip to Italy as well. You can still imagine the gritty and dark atmosphere. But these villages and small town on top of the hills of Lucania are so picturesque. Beautiful!