Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi (1945) is the reason most people come to Aliano. Written after Levi's return from exile, it describes the year he spent in this village — the peasant culture, the poverty, the superstitions, the landscape, the people. It remains one of the essential books about southern Italy and about the chasm between the industrialising north and the rural south that persisted well into the 20th century. Reading it before visiting Aliano transforms the experience entirely.
The Watch by Carlo Levi (1952) is his second major prose work, set in Rome in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Less directly relevant to Aliano but essential for understanding Levi's broader intellectual project — his anti-Fascism, his socialism, his belief in the dignity of ordinary life.