A white boy and a Zulu teen forge a strong bond during apartheid in South Africa. The Drakensburg Mountains are their playground and when one saves the other's life, they become blood brothers. Society tears them apart and they meet again in ten years on opposite sides of a battlefield. Can only one survive?

SYNOPSIS:

ZEBRA. Friends by Fate. Enemies by Destiny.

A young white boy and a Zulu teen grow up together, building an extraordinary friendship as they explore the rugged Drakensberg mountains around a remote South African hotel during the apartheid era.

Jock and Papin forge an indelible bond while learning to love and appreciate each other's cultures. Despite whispers from intolerant guests, the boys are oblivious to the consequences of their friendship. "There goes the zebra," guests remark, claiming they can 't tell where the white boy ends and the black boy begins.

When one saves the other's life, they become Blood Brothers in an elaborate Zulu ceremony.

It seems the boys' friendship is strong enough to conquer all—until society's impossible expectations wrench them apart, leaving bitter disappointment and soul-deep wounds that will not heal.

A decade later, these long-lost friends converge on opposite sides of a harrowing battlefield, one a reluctant soldier, the other a passionate freedom fighter. Their intimate knowledge of the other's way of life could be the very tools that save them.. .or destroy them. And an unimaginable choice will put Jock and Papin's once unbreakable bond to the ultimate test.

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Says a reader of Zebra *****Reviewed in the United States on September 20th 2022

A captivating story. The most endearing characters. And an exotic far away land. All deftly drawn together by the delicate hand of author, Jill Wallace. Her love for her native South Africa, and her love for the real-life people who inspired this story, suffuse each page with both a vibrancy and a grounded realness that made my heart sing, and sometimes brought me to tears.

I challenge any reader to try to NOT fall in love with Jock and Papin. I laughed and chuckled with their adventures and misadventures. I smiled and wept with their joys and sorrows. And above all I felt the profound depth of their friendship and brotherhood.

As these two boys grow up together, we experience with them the conflicts and issues that were once invisible to them as children.

ZEBRA is not a political book, but it gazes unflinchingly at the cruelty and injustice of the apartheid era - how it seeks to define these young men, how each of them endures, and where the power of their brotherhood leads them.

Somehow, reading ZEBRA feels both like a modem classic and a guilty pleasure at the same time. It was so much fun to read, and I feel like a better person for having read it. It is the literary equivalent of eating your vegetables, and having them taste like dessert!