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The Cellist of Sarajevo

By Steven Galloway

(24)

| Others | 9781843547419

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Book Description

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. DraganContinue

Critics

A dying fall

Many novels about war deal with the horrors of the front line, of the terrors of battle. Steven Galloway, in this accomplished, gripping book, instead explores what happens to people who are caught up between warring factions. What happens when you w ... (read full critics)

spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

The Cellist of Sarajevo

by Steven Galloway Vancouver’s Steven Galloway is a precocious writer of astonishing talent and creative imagination whose third novel lives up, in every respect, to the high bar set by his first two. The Cellist of Sarajevo captures with taut, pains ... (read full critics)

quillandquire published on Tue, 14 Sep 2010

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5 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Well, I am a bit disappointed actually. Not that I expected a masterpiece, but something better for sure. With all due respect for the tragedy of Sarajevo, in my opinion this story is really predictable, rethorical and boring. It is not easy to talk about war, bloodshed and the useless pointless mer ... (continue)

Well, I am a bit disappointed actually. Not that I expected a masterpiece, but something better for sure. With all due respect for the tragedy of Sarajevo, in my opinion this story is really predictable, rethorical and boring. It is not easy to talk about war, bloodshed and the useless pointless merciless desecration of life which goes with them, but the events in the characters' lives and the continuous mumbling over them which the Author puts in their minds and mouths are absolutely, yeah, rethorical and...lifeless. Not one page ever moved me, really. Sorry.

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DevilKitty said on Nov 1, 2010 | Add your feedback

I didn't really like this book, and not for lack of trying, since the siege of Sarajevo is a piece of nearby history for me. The three stories it tells are disjointed, everything is constantly interrupted by rambling internal monologues or didactic interventions, and nothing really seems to go anywh ... (continue)

I didn't really like this book, and not for lack of trying, since the siege of Sarajevo is a piece of nearby history for me. The three stories it tells are disjointed, everything is constantly interrupted by rambling internal monologues or didactic interventions, and nothing really seems to go anywhere; too much tell and not enough show, as some would say.
I appreciate that the author was primarily interested in showing the harsh reality of Sarajevo under siege, its landmarks and its people, but a novel has to work primarily as a novel - remove Sarajevo from this one, and nothing much remains.

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Ian Atrus said on Dec 15, 2010 | Add your feedback

Stunning deeply moving account of heroism and courageous questions asked of "what is humanity".

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Fay Ng said on Nov 9, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

This was not what I expected it to be. I would thoroughly recommend it. It is very cleverly written, switching between the lives of three characters in the book, describing their day to day struggles in war torn Sarajevo. Shocking but compelling reading.

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Lunarossa said on May 20, 2010 | Add your feedback

The Siege of Sarajevo is a very real event in modern history, lasting for just under four years, April 1992 to the end of February 1996. Sarajevo was at that time a city of some half a million people and it is estimated that around ten thousand were died due to the siege and a further fifty-six thou ... (continue)

The Siege of Sarajevo is a very real event in modern history, lasting for just under four years, April 1992 to the end of February 1996. Sarajevo was at that time a city of some half a million people and it is estimated that around ten thousand were died due to the siege and a further fifty-six thousand wounded. Ten thousand homes were completely destroyed and an incredible hundred thousand suffered damage.
Steven Galloway has based this very moving and harrowing novel on an event that actually happened during the siege when mortar shells struck people queuing to buy bread. Many people were injured and twenty two people died. A well known local cellist played the same piece of music at the site of this atrocity for twenty two consecutive days following the event in remembrance of those that died.
Although the cellist was the inspiration for the novel none of the protagonists’ characters are based on real people but all from the author’s imagination.
The siege is made horribly realistic for the reader by the protagonists as they live through The Siege of Sarajevo, firstly the Cellist, then a young female counter sniper chosen to protect him who hides her real identity behind a pseudonym Arrow. Kenan, looking old but not yet forty, struggles to keep his wife and three young children supplied with water by traversing the dangerous city streets for supplies every few days. Then there is Dragan who has worked at the city bakery for nearly forty years and were it not for the war would probably be contemplating retirement. Having managed to get his wife and son out of the country before the war started, he now lives unhappily with a sister and her family the bread he provides making him indispensable.
I now feel I have thanks to this powerful novel a better understanding of exactly what the inhabitants of Sarajevo had to endure during this conflict.

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Lindyloumac said on Oct 7, 2009 | Add your feedback