The literary redemption of life prisoner Gianfranco Ruà told in «Escape from hell. The literary redemption of Gianfranco Ruà”, the new book by Arcangelo Badolati, writer and journalist Southern Gazette. A story of redemption that took place behind the grates of the cell of an Emilian prison. Within those four walls the criminal Bruzio chose to meet the authors who have marked the history of humanity.
From the readings of Epictetus, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, John Milton, Baruch Spinoza, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Arthur Schopenhauer, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Jack Mezirow and Daniel Goleman, an internal and cultural journey began which led the former protagonist of the mala bruzia to a degree in Educational Sciences and training processes obtained at the University of Parma. A highly symbolic “piece of paper”, witness to the redemption of a man who, having approached shady deals early on, got lost in the depths of crime, only to then achieve a metamorphic climax. With the discussion of a thesis entitled «In praise of the text: giving meaning to time through books and reading», Ruà thus completed his civil and cultural rehabilitation with the further satisfaction of a path concluded with top marks. A life journey told in a passionate way by Badolati’s pen.
The text, published by Pellegrinitells the power of culture and its ability to transform the human soul. Even transforming the conscience of a man responsible for serious crimes but able to rediscover the best side of himself through literature and poetry. A new awareness, a different emotionality, a different “look” on things gained thanks to the impulse of knowledge. A rebirth that demonstrates how it is never too late to take a different path. Because, as the jurist Stefano Rodotà, an illustrious fellow citizen of Ruà, wrote in an editorial in La Repubblica, “the past cannot be transformed into a sentence that excludes any redemption”.
