"The title of the book comes from an expression by the people of Gagliano who say of themselves, 'Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli' which means, in effect, that they feel they have been bypassed by Christianity, by morality, by history itself—that they have somehow been excluded from the full human experience."

Levi explained that Eboli, a location in the region of Campania to the west near the seacoast, is where the road and railway to Basilicata branched away from the coastal north–south routes.

In 1935, Levi's anti-fascist beliefs and activism led to his banishment by Benito Mussolini's fascist government to a period of internal exile in a remote region of southern Italy.

Despite his status as a political exile Levi was welcomed with open arms, for the people of this area were naturally gracious hosts.

Homes were sparsely furnished; the most frequent decoration was an American dollar, a photo of US president Roosevelt, or the Madonna di Viggiano displayed on their walls.

They rarely attended church, and in fact ostracized their priest, who was a drunk, and whose reputation had been ruined early in his career after he had sexual relations with a young student; he had been banished from one place to another for years, and eventually ended up in Gagliano.

Levi chalks this up to fourteen years’ worth of fascist indoctrination, which has subconciously ingrained in them the idea of a united, utopian Italy.