An Omen of Things to Come: Translated from the original text "L'ombre des choses à venir" by Kossi Efoui

An Omen of Things to Come follows the story of a young man, recently entered into adulthood while he recounts the horrible histories, his own and those of his comrades and acquaintances, that have followed him through childhood, war, and the rediscovery of his father. He draws you into the story through first person narrative and allows you to walk alongside him and relive his past. His personal experiences open the readers eyes to the violence, disappearances and uncertainty that surround people in a time of war: in particular how these atrocities affect the lives of abandoned children and those who choose to protect them.

The imagery and abstract parallelisms create a text that is universal for its readers and can be attributed to any suffering society without thought to race or gender. The "officers of the disappearances" is a horror that can befall any warring nation independent of time or place. Additionally, intimate conversations allow the reader to sympathize with the speaker's confused and troublesome relationships.