The Cellist Of Sarajevo
by Deb McVittie
December 18th, 2010 11:09 AM
On May 27, 1992, in Sarajevo, a group of civilians stood in a breadline as a mortar shells fell from the sky. Vedran Smailovic, the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Opera Orchestra, looked out his window and saw that 22 innocent women, men and children had been killed. The next day, at four o’clock, Vedran took his cello to the crater left by the deadly blast and played amid the sniper fire.
He continued to perform this ritual, perched on a battered stool and dressed in his opera best, for 22 consecutive days... one for each of his friends and neighbors who had been killed. This historical act of beauty amid the horrors of war forms the nucleus for Vancouver writer Steven Galloway’s third novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo.
We follow the lives of the cellist and three other characters as they navigate the terrors of living in a city consumed by civil war. The cellist vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.
Forty-year-old Kenan lives in an apartment with his wife and children. As the story opens, he prepares for his hazardous weekly trip across the city to collect water for his family and an old woman who lives downstairs.
Dragan, 20 years older than Kenan, has sent his family away to Italy just before the war and has not heard from them in many months. He lives with his sister and her husband and works in a bakery where he is paid in bread. Dragan must cross the dangerous streets of Sarajevo to collect his wages.
Arrow, a young woman who is a highly skilled sharpshooter, has been charged with the job of protecting the cellist. Arrow’s determination to succeed is constantly challenged as she struggles to keep herself and the cellist safe. Eventually, she will find herself faced with an ethical dilemma that calls into question everything she believes.
Galloway weaves a suspenseful, intelligent narrative with the strands of these four individual’s stories. We feel that we’ve glimpsed the world behind the news stories where people are caught in the violent web of civil war. This is a novel about the horrors of war and those who profit from it, but also about the bravery and compassion that touch the lives of ordinary people living in extraordinary landscapes.
Steven Galloway is the author of Finnie Walsh and Ascension. He teaches creative writing at UBC and SFU, and lives with his wife and two young daughters in the Lower Mainland.
Deb McVittie is the owner of 32 Books Co. in Edgemont Village
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Apr - May 08
He continued to perform this ritual, perched on a battered stool and dressed in his opera best, for 22 consecutive days... one for each of his friends and neighbors who had been killed. This historical act of beauty amid the horrors of war forms the nucleus for Vancouver writer Steven Galloway’s third novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo.
We follow the lives of the cellist and three other characters as they navigate the terrors of living in a city consumed by civil war. The cellist vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.
Forty-year-old Kenan lives in an apartment with his wife and children. As the story opens, he prepares for his hazardous weekly trip across the city to collect water for his family and an old woman who lives downstairs.
Dragan, 20 years older than Kenan, has sent his family away to Italy just before the war and has not heard from them in many months. He lives with his sister and her husband and works in a bakery where he is paid in bread. Dragan must cross the dangerous streets of Sarajevo to collect his wages.
Arrow, a young woman who is a highly skilled sharpshooter, has been charged with the job of protecting the cellist. Arrow’s determination to succeed is constantly challenged as she struggles to keep herself and the cellist safe. Eventually, she will find herself faced with an ethical dilemma that calls into question everything she believes.
Galloway weaves a suspenseful, intelligent narrative with the strands of these four individual’s stories. We feel that we’ve glimpsed the world behind the news stories where people are caught in the violent web of civil war. This is a novel about the horrors of war and those who profit from it, but also about the bravery and compassion that touch the lives of ordinary people living in extraordinary landscapes.
Steven Galloway is the author of Finnie Walsh and Ascension. He teaches creative writing at UBC and SFU, and lives with his wife and two young daughters in the Lower Mainland.
Deb McVittie is the owner of 32 Books Co. in Edgemont Village
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Apr - May 08
