Ahead of the Shadows by A. R. Kyazze
When a photographer witnesses war crimes, will she have to abandon her calling to save herself?
As Lena and Kojo work in conflicts across East and Central Africa, there is immense psychological pressure, and it’s not certain if their relationship will survive.
Eighteen years later, Bene walks the gritty back streets of Paris for one night in a music festival. He is on his way to meet his father in Kenya, a man he’s never met.
Ahead of the Shadows is about the intense relationships that come from work in war zones, the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next, and how one unconventional boy might be able to break the cycle.
About the author
A.B. Kyazze is a British–American writer and photographer. She spent nearly two decades writing and taking photographs around the world in conflicts and natural disasters – in Africa, Asia and Southern Europe. Her photographs and non-fiction work have been published in travel magazines, The Huffington Post, The Washington Times, The International Review of the Red Cross, and by Oxfam, Save the Children, and the British Red Cross.
OInto the Mouth of the Lion, A.B. Kyazze’s debut novel, was published in May 2021. Set in the final days of Angola’s civil war, it is the story of a young photographer looking for her missing sister in a very dangerous landscape. This is followed by Ahead of the Shadows,published in September 2022. Ahead of the Shadows is set in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan (Darfur) and Paris. It is the continuing story of humanitarian workers labouring under intense conditions, and how this can strain relationships to breaking point. It is also about the impact on the next generation, and how one unconventional boy might be able to break the cycle.
A.B. Kyazze has also published the Humanity in the Landscape photography book series, and a number of flash fiction short stories, articles and book reviews.Today, she lives in southeast London with her young family, writing, mentoring other writers, and running a freelance editing business.
In May 2022 A.B. Kyazze was awarded a London Borough of Culture grant as part of the We Are Lewisham initiative, in order to facilitate creative writing workshops in schools and libraries. She is a trustee for a new creative writing charity, the Oxford Centre for Fantasy.
Review
‘Ahead of the Shadows’ is a brilliant return to the world of Lena, a conflict photographer. This time we find her 20 years after the story in ‘Into The Mouth of the Lion’ and it also features her son Bene. But we are also sent back into the past to continue the story of Lena and Koko’s relationship and their work helping people in the Congo, Darfur and Nairobi.
Bene is leaving Madeira and travelling to Nigeria and for the first time on his own. He was meant to be going with his mum but she has had to travel to London as a close friend is ill with cancer. Bene has a night’s stopover in Paris and since it is the summer solstice he decides to wander the streets and absorb it's sights and sounds. He is meant to be meeting his father in Nigeria, for the first time. Koko doesn't know he has a son with Lena. In the flashbacks we are shown how Lena’s and Koko’s relationship flourished after Angola. We follow Lena as she continues to work to document what is happening in areas of conflict in Africa and how this is affecting her.
I have to say that it was Bene who stole my heart this time round. It was his innocence and watching him experience things for the first time in Paris. It reminded me of when I wandered those streets during a break from uni and how fascinated I had been. We both wanted to immerse ourselves into the local culture and explore what has become my favourite city in the world. But it was also his relationship with his mum, his descriptions of their lives together and his fears about meeting his father that drew me in.
This book does raise the difficult topic of how entering these conflict zones must play on the mental health of aid workers. The scenes where Lena are on the roof watching a refugee camp being destroyed will stay with me for a long time. Imagine knowing that the people you talked to that day are probably being murdered right that moment. Horrific. I sincerely hope that this is not one of Kyazze’s own memories but I have a suspicion it might be. Either way, I wanted to give Lena a big hug after reading that.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
