This is the top 10 bestseller, now in paperback. Snipers in the hills overlook the shattered streets of Sarajevo. Knowing that the next bullet could strike at any moment, the ordinary men and women below strive to go about their daily lives as best they can. Kenan faces the agonizing dilemma of crossing the city to get water for his family. Dragan, gripped by fear, does not know who among his friends he can trust. And Arrow, a young woman counter-sniper must push herself to the limits - of body and soul, fear and humanity.Told with immediacy, grace and harrowing emotional accuracy, "The Cellist of Sarajevo" shows how, when the everyday act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.
The Cellist of Sarajevo
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Steven Galloway teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia. He lives in Vancouver with his wife, children, dog and cat.
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"'Though the setting is the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, this gripping novel transcends time and place. It is a universal story, and a testimony to the struggle to find meaning, grace, and humanity, even amid the most unimaginable horrors.' Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner * 'A grand and powerful novel about how people retain or reclaim their humanity when they are under extreme duress...While reading The Cellist of Sarajevo you are imaginatively there, in Sarajevo, as the mortar shells are falling and snipers are seeking to kill you as you cross a street. Your mind's eye sees, your moral sense is outraged: your full humanity is being exercised.' Yann Martel * 'Galloway's style is sparse, pared down; his prose has the deceptive simplicity of a short story. The work of an expert, The Cellist of Sarajevo is a controlled and subtle piece of craftsmanship.' - Observer * 'Startlingly good... With prose as unsentimental and deadly as gunfire, Galloway superbly captures the tense existence of a city under siege where daily tasks become a gamble between life and death, yet where a single note of music can exert a power equal to any bomb or bullet.' - Metro"
About the Author
Steven Galloway was born in Vancouver in 1975. He is the author of two previous novels. The Cellist of Sarajevo is his first book to be published in the UK.
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114 of 117 people found the following review helpful
By Suzie
Format:Paperback
The cello, with its wonderfully rich and mellow tones, has to be one of my favourite instruments, so I was immediately drawn to this book. For a long time, though, I resisted reading it, fearing that war-torn Sarajevo would be a harrowing and morbid subject. Instead the book provided a riveting insight into the daily struggles of ordinary people caught up in a situation over which they have no control.
I hadn't realised until I read the author's Afterword that the idea for the story, itself entirely fictional, came from a true-life situation. A cellist sits at the same spot in a bombed street at the same time every day for 22 days and plays Albinoni's haunting Adagio in honour of the 22 people killed there by mortar shells while waiting to buy bread. It's a dangerous memorial - the cellist is, literally, a sitting target for snipers.
The book isn't about the cellist himself, though. It's about the inspiration and hope his music conveys to people caught up in a daily struggle to live and stay alive, as well as the tragic waste that inevitably comes with war. In many ways, this is less a novel, more a snapshot of the lives of three individuals during those 22 days. As they watch their beloved city crumble around them, services we take for granted like electricity and running water become so unreliable as to exist only in the memory, and obtaining food and fresh water becomes a matter of life and death.
Throughout the book the novelist concentrates on Kenan's efforts to carry sufficient water to last a week, both for his family and for an irascible old woman who lives downstairs and to whom he feels an obligation even though he doesn't like her. Read more ›
I hadn't realised until I read the author's Afterword that the idea for the story, itself entirely fictional, came from a true-life situation. A cellist sits at the same spot in a bombed street at the same time every day for 22 days and plays Albinoni's haunting Adagio in honour of the 22 people killed there by mortar shells while waiting to buy bread. It's a dangerous memorial - the cellist is, literally, a sitting target for snipers.
The book isn't about the cellist himself, though. It's about the inspiration and hope his music conveys to people caught up in a daily struggle to live and stay alive, as well as the tragic waste that inevitably comes with war. In many ways, this is less a novel, more a snapshot of the lives of three individuals during those 22 days. As they watch their beloved city crumble around them, services we take for granted like electricity and running water become so unreliable as to exist only in the memory, and obtaining food and fresh water becomes a matter of life and death.
Throughout the book the novelist concentrates on Kenan's efforts to carry sufficient water to last a week, both for his family and for an irascible old woman who lives downstairs and to whom he feels an obligation even though he doesn't like her. Read more ›
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By Book 1981
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I think the hype around this book hasn't done it many favours - I was expecting something big and profound, which turns out is not what this book delivers. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is certainly understated and `quiet' if you get my meaning. Perhaps the author chose this tone because he is writing about normal people who are trying to carry on with their normal life as their city is under siege. They are easy to identify with, which brings their actions and behaviour very close to your own understanding - There are few heroic actions that do not ring true, and the omnipresent narration lets us know what they are thinking, thus showing us their sometimes painful weaknesses. It is a sensitive story very much focussed on the internal world of a few of the citizens of Sarajevo.
But I was expecting to be moved more than I was. I think the narration was too simple to wake any real emotion in me. The Cellist makes an important gesture, but it isn't described with enough size or intensity. I found the same with Arrow, the female sniper - Her story could have been so involving and intense, but it didn't quite get there. There is no doubt that Steven Galloway has given serious thought to how the human psychology functions under such terrible conditions, and has researched his topic thoroughly. I was just expecting a little more impact, because undoubtedly his topic has plenty of scope for it. He's just not found it.
I can't help wondering whether this book should have been written by someone who was there. I can remember the siege of Sarajevo, it is so recent that the characters he describes could easily be alive today. Read more ›
But I was expecting to be moved more than I was. I think the narration was too simple to wake any real emotion in me. The Cellist makes an important gesture, but it isn't described with enough size or intensity. I found the same with Arrow, the female sniper - Her story could have been so involving and intense, but it didn't quite get there. There is no doubt that Steven Galloway has given serious thought to how the human psychology functions under such terrible conditions, and has researched his topic thoroughly. I was just expecting a little more impact, because undoubtedly his topic has plenty of scope for it. He's just not found it.
I can't help wondering whether this book should have been written by someone who was there. I can remember the siege of Sarajevo, it is so recent that the characters he describes could easily be alive today. Read more ›
81 of 89 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This represented an intriguing read which is full of useful anecdotes and reminders of what it was like to be faced with sniper fire during the four year siege of this famous and celebrated city of culture, Sarajevo. The focal point of the plot is taken from the angle of three central characters which had to endure the trauma of civil war and the loss of any normality and humanity in their beloved city. The key characters are dragan, Kennan and arrow. Arrow (the sniper code-name and female) is chosen to protect the cellist from sniper fire at all costs and act therefore as a counter-sniper, thus protecting her own sense of culture and humanity in the midst of chaos. However, Kennan and dragan are different. Through their mundane experiences, such as collecting water at the other end of the city, a parallel sub-plot emerges where Galloway can comment on the trauma, uncertainty, tragedy and slaughter people had to endure in order to complete basic tasks. Both Kennan and Dragan question the meaning of their existence and the fragility of their lives as the loss of friends, via the snipers, becomes ritualised and normalised. You truly experience how hard it was for people in Yugoslavia to maintain any sense of shock when ritualised murder of innocents was so common in the 1990s. The plot thickens at the end when Galloway hangs this sense of wonder and curiosity in the plot around the cellist and arrow. The question of whether the cellist will survive from the onslaught of the snipers and be protected by arrow becomes the integral theme. An interesting read. However, a key criticism of the novel was the fact that characters are not fully developed and the ending is rather flat when you consider the build up of tension prior to the finale.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
lyical
Just beautifully written around a terrible topic. Lyrical stories, personal and characterful, intertwined to develop an overwhelming impression of the time
Published 7 days ago by Jayne Lansdell
4.0 out of 5 stars
brilliant
A gripping read, could have read even more and the ending was just what was required. Would read another of galloways.
Published 24 days ago by S. Steele
4.0 out of 5 stars
don't give up on this one
It took me a while to get into this book, particularly the present tense writing, but, by the time I w as half way through, I felt very committed to the novel and resented time... Read more
Published 1 month ago by sarah peelio
5.0 out of 5 stars
this was a gift and the recipient was pleased with it. so overall,...
this was a gift and the recipient was pleased with it. so overall, pleased that I bought this and the price was compitive.
Published 1 month ago by ruth davies
5.0 out of 5 stars
Frightening
Well worth reading. Even though I was aware of the war at the time I am ashamed to say I really didn't understand much at all.
Published 1 month ago by Sheffielder
5.0 out of 5 stars
The story of snipper fire is so pertinent to what ...
The story of snipper fire is so pertinent to what is accounted in Syria now and is a must read.
Published 4 months ago by D. J. Pike
4.0 out of 5 stars
bookclub choice
good read .clever way to look at the devastation of war without too much of the graphics.atmospheric and the music is woven through the novel. Read more
Published 5 months ago by deirdre cahalan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful.
Beautiful book. Carefully, sympathetically written with some wonderful landuage.
Really enjoyed this thought provoking book.
Good to learn from the novel also.
Really enjoyed this thought provoking book.
Good to learn from the novel also.
Published 6 months ago by THOMAS MORGANS
4.0 out of 5 stars
A novel that is thought-provoking, deep with moral judgments and a...
The Cellist of Sarajevo is a novel that took no time in all in reading. Galloway's writing is fluid, easily readable and engaging. Read more
Published 6 months ago by L. D. Alderton
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but not spectacular
Not a book that I would recommend. Some characters not that convincing and the story line is a bit weak.
Published 7 months ago by Page Turner
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