“Hoshana” is the compelling and philosophical dystopian novel by Monica Brogi, a Florentine writer, psychologist, psychotherapist and psychodramatist, born in 1971. The author, engaged in socio-cultural, educational and training fields, is a passionate popularizer of the arts of dance, theater, creative writing and poetry. She has published the works “Exuvia” (Tassinari Editions, 2018), “Nemesis” (Fairy Boulder, 2019) and “Crystal Creatures” (Fairy Boulder, 2019); the poetic-sapiential operetta “Genealogy of Remains” (Fairy Boulder, 2024) has also been released as a corollary to “Hoshana.”
The Hebrew word “hoshana” means “to save us”: Monica Brogi’s work centers precisely on an attempt at salvation led by two courageous characters determined to cut off the tentacles of a monster that have crept into the scientific and medical-academic communities and pharmaceutical companies, pandered to by unscrupulous men of power with no respect for human life. We are in a dystopia and, as in every novel belonging to this literary genre, the first enemy is the state: a tyrannical government pulling the strings of a dehumanized and selfish society to the core, heedless of the suffering generated by its criminal conduct. Druid and Dimitri, the protagonists of the play, will learn of one of the plagues of their world: the trafficking and killing of human beings in order to employ them in scientific experimentation.
The attempt to save their fellow humans is the ultimate goal of Druid and Dimitri; a salvation that is still possible, according to Druid’s words, contained in the work attributed to him – “Genealogy of the Remains”: his philosophical speculations, put into poetic form, are the legacy he passes on to those who will have the strength to fight to make the world a better place. This hope illuminates the darkness of an inhumane context, in which people are ready to pay any price for scientific development and the power and money that come with it, as long as it is only the weakest elements of society that face it.
Monica Brogi tells the story of an intense friendship, strengthened even more by the two protagonists’ willingness to counter the mad frenzy of progress-“I am ready to fight against Frenzy, against the frenzy of evolution, even to carry on Druid’s awakening: the awakening from the silence of the peoples. The essence of presence was no longer needed, now only presence is needed: to be there, to witness, to take the mask off your mouth and speak.”
“Hoshana” is a hard-hitting novel that makes us reflect on what it means to be human today: what are our rights and, more importantly, what are our duties? How can we participate in Druid and Dimitri’s struggle in favor of free will and respect for every human life?
