Italian writer, painter, and political journalist whose first documentary novel became an international literary sensation and enhanced the trend toward social realism in postwar Italian literature.

Levi was a painter and a practicing physician when he was exiled (1935–36) to the southern district of Lucania for anti-Fascist activities. His Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1945; Christ Stopped at Eboli) reflects the visual sensitivity of a painter and the compassionate objectivity of a doctor. Quickly acclaimed a literary masterpiece, it was widely translated.

Though Levi's first novel is unquestionably his masterpiece, he wrote other important nonfiction works. His Paura della libertà (1947; Of Fear and Freedom) proclaims the necessity of intellectual freedom despite an inherent human dread of it. L'orologio (1950; The Watch) deals with a postwar Cabinet crisis in Rome; Le parole sono pietre (1955; Words Are Stones) is a study of Sicily; and La doppia notte dei tigli (1959; The Linden Trees, or The Two-Fold Night) is a presentation of postwar Germany.

Levi directed a periodical in Florence for a time and contributed to several other magazines. Later he devoted himself to painting.