La trama alternativa. Sogni e pratiche di giustizia trasformativa contro la violenza di genere

What happens when the one to be accused is an activist, cultural agitator, feminist ally, and your best friend? And what happens if a community decides to refuse police and justice system intervention, and to begin a path of reparation? The friendship between Giusi and Bernat is strong like a vote. It resists their total difference in temperament: he is exuberant and chaotic, she is private and introspective. But when a woman accuses Bernat of sexual assault, it gets impossible for Giusi to keep trusting in their bond. In a most likely version of the events, Bernat would be reported to the appropriate authorities, some investigations would be started, a trial, maybe a prison sentence. In this story, instead, the woman who accuses him chooses an alternative path, in line with the belief that everyone could have the skills to repair the damage done, to change: this is the beginning of a difficult path, which will involve not only Giusi and Bernat, but also their comrades, the entire community of which they are part, by projecting them in a place filled with uncertainty, from which it’s possible to take account of all unforeseen possibilities. In these pages Giusi Palomba reads again that experience without moving back when she is overtaken by doubts, disorientation and questions. She instead articulates them in reflections that are extremely clear for the reader. The Alternative Plot proposes a powerful testimony and a new point of view on a much-discussed topic about gender-based violence. Bringing everyone to rewrite our definitions of victim and culprit, Palomba invites us to look far beyond our borders, towards an idea of justice that resembles a path of collective recovery, and all the good that comes from it will be equally shared, equally ours.