Novels Now

The Cellist of Sarajevo
Stephen Galloway
235 pages

She knows that twenty-two people died here and a multitude were injured, will not walk or see or touch again. Because they tried to buy bread. A small decision. Nothing to think about. You’re hungry, and come to this place where maybe they will have some bread to buy. … And then some men on the hills send a bomb through the air to kill you. For them, it was probably just one more bomb in a day of many. Not notable all. (p. 82) 

The siege of Sarajevo took place between April 1992 and February 1996, killing approximately 10,000 people. The city was repeatedly shelled, and snipers took up posts in the surrounding hills, firing on unsuspecting victims. Following the May, 1992 bombing of a bakery, a local cellist played Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor (listen here), every day for twenty-two days, in memory of the dead. Each day he would quietly take his place in the street, putting his own life at tremendous risk. The title character of this novel is based on that cellist. Other characters include Arrow, a young woman caught up in the fighting, and sent to protect the cellist from snipers; Dragan, struggling to survive after sending his wife and son to safety in Italy; and Kenan, a young husband and father who routinely traverses the dangerous city streets to get water for his family and an elderly neighbor. None of these characters know each other, but their stories are loosely intertwined around the cellist. 

The real power of this book was in its portrayal of war-torn Sarajevo, and the impact of the struggle for survival on its people. Kenan put himself in grave danger to fetch water, and during his journey across town, he imagined a better time for his family where they will once again be able to visit restaurants and go on long walks eating ice cream. Dragan’s story centered on one particular day where he attempted to cross a street on his way to the bakery. He was paralyzed with fear of the snipers who had set their sights on the street that afternoon. And then there was Arrow, who became involved in the conflict after losing her own family. She also lost both her youth and her happiness. Each character’s life was changed irrevocably: food shortages took a toll on their bodies, and frequent contact with death shattered their spirits. 

Every time I read a book like The Cellist of Sarajevo, I wonder what it is about humankind that makes us do such things to one another. (  )

The Cellist of Sarajevo paints a grim picture of what life is like for citizens of a city living during a war siege.

Steven Galloway takes a true event, a cellist who decides to play everyday on the site of a bombing and fashions a war story I won’t soon forget. Twenty-two people were killed while waiting in line for bread and the cellist decided to play for them. He wanted to do a little thing, for their memory, and for his sanity. Galloway takes three fictional characters and follows them during the weeks the cellist plays. Arrow, a sniper who is the best at her job, is assigned to protect the cellist from enemies. Dragan, an older gentlemen who has sent his wife and son to Italy for safety, but can’t bring himself to leave his beloved city. Kenan, a younger man who spends days at a time risking his life to get a water supply for his family.

This book scared me and moved me. How do people change in a situation like that? The hatred that develops, the change in character of the citizens as each person tries to survive in their own way. Some people run away, some stay and pretend it isn’t going on, and some fight back. How did the rest of the world allow this to happen: for almost 4 years the former Olympic city was under siege and electricity, food, jobs, and money were all scarce. Galloway does a wonderful job of bringing the reader into the mind and life of a citizen in the city.

This book is particularly interesting to me because I know a teacher that came from Yugoslavia. I haven’t talked to him about the specifics, but he came to Canada in the 1990s and I was thinking of him and his family while I read this book. I want to tell him about this book, but it might be too close for him to read about. For everyone else, this is a beautiful book that I think most people would like. It’s not violently graphic but you will feel what it is like to live in a European city during a war. Not that you want to experience that, but I know that the next time I hear about a country under attack, I’ll think differently.

2008, 258 pp.
Rating: 4.5/5

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway is a moving story based on fact. It chronicles the few days in Sarajevo during 1992 when the real “Cellist of Sarajevo,” Vedran Smailovic, played his cello for 22 days in the exact spot where 22 people had been killed while waiting in line for bread.

In the novel, a counter-sniper, Arrow, is assigned to keep the cellist from getting shot and killed. Arrow is the best at what she does but still wrestles with the moral dilemma of having to take another’s life. She wonders if she is any better than the men in the hills trying to destroy her city.

We also meet Kenan, a man on his way to fetch water for his family, and we follow his life-threatening journey as well as his thoughts, fears, and hopes for the future. Another character, Dragan, misses his family, whom he helped to get out of the country. All of them are waiting. Waiting for help that never comes.

Told in a simple but unforgettable style, Galloway captures this unfortunate moment in history in a way that will break your heart for all victims of war.

This book will be released on May 15 from Riverhead Books.

2008, 231 pp.
Rating: 4/5

“Why do you suppose he’s there? Is he playing for the people who died? Or is he playing for the people who haven’t? What does he hope to accomplish?” -From The Cellist of Sarajevo-

The Siege of Sarajevo began April 5, 1992 and lasted almost four years. Approximately 10,000 people were killed, and 56,000 wounded - most were civilians. Embedded in these numbers are thousands of personal stories. One of those stories includes Vedran Smailovic, a musician who witnessed 22 of his friends and neighbors killed by a mortar shell while they were waiting to buy bread in May 1992. In response to this horrific event, Smailovic sat in the square where his friends had died and played his cello for 22 days - one day for each life. This small, but significant human response to the war touched Steven Galloway - a Canadian writer who had never been to Sarajevo, but who began to think about hate and the essential ingredients of humanity. The result is The Cellist of Sarajevo - a profoundly moving and universal novel about what it means to be human in the face of atrocity.

The Cellist of Sarajevo is the story of four regular people and their response to war and hate. The cellist is the character who unites the story threads. His music is the backdrop to the core stories which Galloway tells in taut, yet simple prose. Kenan is living with his sister and her family - he has managed to send his wife and son away from Sarajevo to safety and he often thinks about what it would be like to leave Sarajevo and join them. In the meantime, he avoids old friends and focuses on his survival - trying to cross an intersection where a sniper waits. Dragan lives with his wife and two small children. He has avoided engaging in the conflict and every four days must go to get water for his family and elderly neighbor - a woman who is unkind, cold, and selfish. Arrow is a young woman who will not acknowledge her real name - the name that represents who she was before the war. She now works as a sniper for the forces within the city. Before the end of the novel, all three will have to decide whether or not they will allow the war to make decisions for them and steal their humanity, or if instead they will reach out to another person and do what is right, even if it means they will not survive.

I was moved to tears at the end of this short novel. Galloway writes exquisitely. He shows the reader the simple lives of his characters and defines the essence of what it means to be human. The novel makes the reader wonder what he or she would do faced with similar circumstances. It asks the big questions. As Galloway points out in his short introduction: The themes and characters exist wherever ordinary people find themselves caught in war. Sarajevo could be Lebanon or Chechnya or Iraq or a half-dozen other places.

The Cellist of Sarajevo is required reading. Beautifully crafted and heavy with truth, it is one I can highly recommend. Rated 5/5.

For 22 days in 1992 during the siege of Sarajevo, local cellist Vedran Smailovic played in the spot where a mortar killed 22 people who were standing in line for bread. At any time while he played, he could have been shot by a sniper, but he survived each day, committing a small but significant act of resistance that became the inspiration for Steven Galloway’s new book, The Cellist of Sarajevo.

In this book, Galloway depicted the the lives of three (fictional) Sarajevo residents: Arrow, a sniper with deadly accuracy, sent to protect The Cellist; Kenan, a married father of three who risked his life every five days to get water for his family and neighbor; and Dragan, a man whose wife and son evacuated to Italy, which left him alone and unconnected to his fellow humans.

The Cellist was a minor character in the book, but his 22 days of music were what bound these characters’ stories. For the characters, The Cellist inspired each one to defy the atrocities around them, by doing human tasks, such as removing a body from the street or getting water for a cranky neighbor. By committing these acts, each character proved that while the war raged on, they were committed to being human. To survive the siege, the characters not only had to dodge snipers, but keep the spirit of Sarajevo alive within them.

Undoubtedly, Galloway swept the reader into the besieged Sarajevo so that you heard the gunfire and The Cellist’s music; you saw the shelled buildings and the haggard looks on people’s faces; you felt the citizens’ desperation as they looked for food or firewood. Galloway’s ability to transport readers to this place in modern history made The Cellist of Sarajevo so impactful and unforgettable.

Thankfully, Sarajevo is making a comeback, but it’s important that books like this one are being published so people can learn more about what this city and its citizens endured – and ultimately how their small acts of defiance during the siege laid the groundwork for Sarajevo’s restoration now.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about how people can rise above the ugliness of the world around us. (5/5)