Żero is a 14-year-old boy who has never met another living being his whole life. Until, one day, the highly technological apartment where he has lived all his life is hit by a power cut.

With the black-out, one of the security doors opens up and for the first time, Żero steps out in the real world, which up till now he had no idea existed.

Unused to the cold and the snow, and unfamiliar with such things as roads, open spaces and cars, he soon falls victim to hypothermia and faints on a pavement. He is saved by Stefania, a doctor who happens to be driving by, but unused to being touched, Żero faints every time Stefania tries to gently stroke him.

Eventually, Stefania and her husband Luca work out that Żero was a Virtual War Network boy who belonged to an agency which built super technological remote war machines. These weapons for mass destruction were to be manned by an elite team of indoctrinated boy soldiers, and Żero was one of them. The boys were all snatched away from their biological parents at birth.

As he is chased by his former captors, Żero is taken to a safe hideout by Stefania and Luca, but even while trying to figure out the outside world, deep down he is torn. Part of him is scared and wants to go back to the familiarity of his old life and old rules, but part of him wants to explore this new, passionate and exciting world. Which world does he really belong to? Does he have it in him to undo all his fundamental beliefs and go against his creators?

Written by Italian author and university professor, Luigi Ballerini, Żero is a captivating, thrilling read, ideal for children 12 years and up, but also an exciting read for adults who enjoy thrilling adventures with a technological bent.

Such is the suspense and its fast-paced rhythm that when it was first published in Italy in 2015, children were snap-reading it in not more than two days.  In fact, a year later Żero won the prestigious Italian Premio Bancarellino.

Soon after that Merlin Publishers secured the rights to make it available to Maltese children and it has been adapted to Maltese by award-winning author John A. Bonello, popular for his Il-Logħba tal-Allat fantasy trilogy and his bestselling Irvin Vella investigatur virtwali series.

Older children will inevitably be hooked to the storyline's adrenaline-rush and raw emotion and will easily identify with the main character. At the end of the day Żero is a coming of age novel: fundamentally it's about a young teen who is curious to discover the world and yet at the same time, is cautious to step into the unknowns of life.

Incidentally parents will also enjoy the read because it is a clever eye-opener about the risk of letting technology risk detach us from the real world.

Żero is available from all leading bookshops or directly online, with free postage to Malta and Gozo from merlinpublishers.com