Zaire - Danijel Jovanović

In a cruel world ruled by men, a broken girl tries to find her place. A relentless search for salvation will take her and her fox to the very end of the world.

What she will find there will be much more than what she was looking for.

The world of the Province is harsh. It is a man's world where women have very few rights. A great prophecy was revealed to the sorcerer Alaimbola. It says that on the first day of summer, a Hero will be born who will unite the four royal lineages and save the world from the coming darkness.

Summer has come, and with it Zaire, the first firstborn daughter in the world. Her family considers her a curse, the rest of the world a freak. When on 7th birthday, despite the Rulebook, she adopts a fox, things get even more complicated. Her life is hard and cruel. She blames herself for all the misfortunes that befall her family and thinks that she unjustly took Hero's place. When her best and only friend, Zuri, is sacrificed to Vulcan, she runs away into the world determined to find the Hero from the prophecy and thereby atone for all the evil that, in her opinion, she has caused to the world. On a difficult and cruel road, full of deadly traps and unimaginable dangers, Zaire and Masika, her fox, encounter friends, enemies, traitors, spies, demons and various evil creatures that only want to harm her. They will pass the Forest, the Rainforest, the Mountains, the Desert and reach the Endless Ocean. Wherever she goes, she will gain new knowledge and change people's lives without even realizing it. In the land of the Endless Ocean, the end of her quest awaits her and the knowledge of a Hero that she could not even dream of.

Zaire is a big story about small people.

I love how Danijel writes. I have been enjoying his novels since the first part of The North Gate (Severna kapija). Gentleman's House (Gospodinova kuća) is especially dear to me, because both my children and I enjoyed reading it. It was one nice friendship. I was impatiently waiting for the new book and after 3 years I welcomed Zaire.

In the novel Zaire, Danijel exceeded all my expectations and proved that he is a great and mature author who can write for adults as well. Let's be clear, I love to read "kids" books and the fact that someone writes them is not a disadvantage but an advantage, because children are the harshest critics. Danijel and his previous novels were equally popular with both children and adults. I believe that it will remain the same with Zaire and that this wonderful book will find its way to new readers and touch even the hardest hearts.

"You've been taught to believe a false image of yourself," Isadora said. "All your life you have been ashamed of things that are not your faults, but your virtues. What you see as your shame is something that sets you apart from all the other people in this world. By now you should have realized that being unique doesn't necessarily mean the same as being wrong..."

Through Zaire, in this novel, Danijel tells the story of all the little people who, because of the fears and shackles of society and the environment, cannot become big. It teaches us that it takes incredible courage to stand up against rules that are often wrong and designed to oppress the small and give advantage to the big. However, in the most difficult times, these little ones are the bravest in moments of crisis and teach lessons to the big ones, who usually hide in mouse holes when it gets tough.

Anyone who has at least once been a victim of violence, either verbal or physical, will recognize himself in Zaire. I am. Because tattoos, because pink hair, because piercings, because I don't care what others think of me, because I don't need other people's admiration and approval to know my worth. All this exposes me to daily taunts, criticism and even curses. The more they dispute and spit on me, the stronger I am, the pain in an awkward place for someone else's opinion becomes more intense, and the broom carries me to even greater heights. Zaire is like that. Where others would stop and give up, she bravely and stubbornly continues on, even though this attitude often puts herself in danger.

Besides that basic story about Zaire, her life and character. This is a story of adventure, friendship and magic. All the characters are phenomenally developed. Everyone has their own role. Even the smallest and most insignificant at the crucial moment help everything fall into place and the story develops in the right direction. Danijel has created a separate magical world here that has a lot of similarities with ours, although we are "a little" more modern and "civilized".

If you are intrigued by my writing, you can order the novel Zaire on the website of the publisher Otvorena knjiga or wait for the Belgrade Book Fair and look for them at one of the stands in Hall 1.