Into the Mouth of the Lion by A. B. Kyazze

Angola, 2002. In the last days of a vicious civil war, it is a dangerous landscape rife with rebel soldiers, land mines, corruption and deception. A suspicious explosion kills a beloved nurse, while another humanitarian worker goes missing.

Lena Rodrigues, a young photographer, flies out to Angola's highlands to piece together the reasons behind her sister's disappearance. But will she have the strength to bear witness to the truth, before she gets entangled in the country's conflict for minerals and power?

About the author.

A.B. Kyazze is a British-American writer and photographer. She spent more than 18 years writing and taking photographs in humanitarian crises across the globe in Africa, Asia and the Balkans. Into the Mouth of the Lion is her debut novel. She recently published short stories in The Great Lakes Review, Byte the Book and The National Anthology of Flash Fiction 2019 (UK). She also writes book reviews and articles, and teaches creative writing classes for children.

Review

‘Into the Mouth of the Lion’ is a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking and very human look into the Angolan war. It takes places during the latter end of the conflict and it's rare to find a piece of fiction that doesn't take a political stance in this genre. At it's heart is the people - the locals and the humanitarian workers and due to that, it manages to project a feeling of hope in the book despite the horrific circumstances that are documented. I truly found it moving.

Lena, a young photographer in London has been notified that her sister DJ has done missing in Angola where has been working as a humanitarian worker for the last few years. Despite not speaking to DJ since their mother’s funeral apart from the odd postcard, Lena flies over to help with the search. She soon realises that Angola is a very complicated country and there is danger at every turn and is in the midst of a huge humanitarian crisis.

First, of all can I say I am in awe people like the author who actually put themselves in harm's way to document, help and understand these conflict areas. It takes a very brave person to do this. In a way I think the sister's story in combination may tell the story of our author. I tended to side more with Lena, mainly due to the fact we see the majority of the story from her point of view. The chapters from her mother’s life was illuminating actually - Lena saw her as traditional but in many ways she was independent and challenging her own cultures limitations. I loved the ending of this book. I'm not going to give it away sometimes everything being tied up in a bow is unrealistic of life, especially in this story.

This was a great read and I don't hesitate to recommend it.