'The many shadows of war' by João Paulo Borges Coelho

As Duas Sombras do Rio (The Two Shadows of the River) is João Paulo Borges Coelho’s first novel, but the themes it explores are familiar to the body of his work as a historian of the Portuguese colonial wars, and of Mozambican postcolonial history in particular. Anyone familiar with his academic writing will notice that the setting for As Duas Sombras do Rio, Bawa and Zumbo, have repeatedly figured in his essays and publications. The novel explores Mozambique’s troubled past, and more specifically the human cost of endless conflicts between various political forces over the last decades of the 20th century.