A moving family and mystical journey into the Amazon rainforest. Born to a Dutch mother and a Surinamese father he knows very little about, Raoul is barely thirty years old when he receives the following email: I AM LOOKING FOR MY SON RAOUL DE JONG ☺☺☺ From this late meeting with his father, many hopes are born, sometimes disappointed, and as many questions, particularly about his Surinamese ancestry. Among the snippets revealed by his father, a quick mention of a mysterious ancestor catches the writer’s special attention: the father of his father’s grandmother was an enslaved African medicine man, who supposedly had the ability to transform himself into a jaguar. While his father refuses to say more, Raoul set out in search of this enigmatic ancestor who will take him to the stifling streets of Paramaribo, to the heart of the Surinamese jungle and to the house of a voodoo priestess. In this quest for the animal, the young writer sets out in search of his own humanity, a true optimistic manifesto.

Jaguarman was translated into French and German, and shortlisted for The European Union Prize for Literature, De Libris Literatuurprijs, De Boon, De E. Du Perronprijs, De Boekenbonliteratuurprijs, and Le Prix littéraire des lycéens de l’Euregio.

“Written two years before the Netherlands’ “apology” at the end of 2022 for having practiced slavery for two hundred fifty years, *Jaguar Man *paints, at last, from life, the portrait of a worldly country” —Le Monde

"A unique mix of non-fiction and fiction, classic quest, travel story, life lesson, prayer and fairy tale, literature and historiography” — NRC Handesblad

“(Raoul de Jong) is both narrator and character, a charming and funny guide as he goes deeper into the forest and climbs, with signs and clues, the branches of his family tree” — Libération