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    The Cellist of Sarajevo
    The Cellist of Sarajevo
    The Cellist of Sarajevo
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Cellist of Sarajevo

    Written by Steven Galloway

    Narrated by Gareth Armstrong

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Sarajevo, in the 1990s, is a hellish place. The ongoing war devours human life, tears families apart and transforms even banal routines, such as acquiring water, into life-threatening expeditions. Day after day, a cellist stations himself in the midst of the devastation, defying the ever-present snipers to play tributes to victims of a massacre. A true story of a cellist’s resistance helps to form this pivotal event in Steven Galloway’s extraordinary novel. Against this, the author touchingly describes three ordinary townspeople and their efforts to retain their humanity, sanity and autonomy as war takes hold of their lives. This bestselling novel is immediate, vivid and deeply affecting on audiobook, fully immersing the listener in the havoc of war.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9789629549510
    The Cellist of Sarajevo
    Author

    Steven Galloway

    Steven Galloway was born in Vancouver in 1975. He is the author of two previous novels. The Cellist of Sarajevo is his first novel to be published in the UK.

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    Reviews for The Cellist of Sarajevo

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    • 4/5
      I am not one to read books regarding fighting and war; however, I'm very glad this was assigned as summer reading, for I am very glad to have read it. Set during the Siege of Serajevo, this novel dealt with how people during war lose their sense of humanity. Throughout this beautifully written book, three characters, all citizens of Serajevo, set out to reclaim their humanity in the face of brutality, hatred, and hopelessness.
    • 2/5
      Overall, I was very disappointed in this book. A brilliant premise, the story fell flat for me, with poorly conceived characters and rote storylines.

      The story is told from the viewpoint of three members of the city. One is responsible for his family, one is responsible for working in a bakery, and one is a sniper for the defenders. The story would have been much deeper if one of the "men on the hill", or the attackers, had been included in this. Both sides of the conflict would have been offered, as opposed to this almost propaganda-ish, one-sided story. Whether you are for one side or the other, there are two sides to each story, and humanity on both sides of the battle.

      There is also a measure of outright license taken by the author to call his book "The Cellist of Sarajevo" since this person actually exists. The author is clear and adamant that this is a work of fiction; but there can be no doubt whom the cellist is, and although I'm sure this phrase is not licensed or protected, the author shows (I think) a lack of respect for the person in the title.

      With that said, I understand why the view of the cellist is not given, as that would have pushed the envelope too far, especially since the cellist has come out publicly against this book. However, another voice was needed here, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, to balance the story.

      Another issue I had with the book was the predictability of it all. Even Arrow's last scene adds to the "and they all lived..." feeling of the book. Why didn't Arrow shoot the commander? Why didn't she shoot the civilian? If she was going to be a fugitive for not obeying orders, why not take out a few of the internal bad guys?

      Everyone's internal struggle seemed surface, predictable, and without sympathy from me, the reader. I didn't care what happened to the characters, and even found myself wanting one to be killed in the middle of the story so the author could give the reader a real sense of loss. Instead, he handed me a one-dimensional story and asked me to watch for movement.
    • 4/5
      The Cellist of SarajevoStephen GallowayAn Early Reviewer book.On May , 1992, while waiting in line to buy bread, 22 people were killed and over 70 wounded by an incoming mortar shell from the forces laying siege to Sarajevo in what would be a four year war. For 22 days afterwards, every afternoon at 4 o’clock, the time his neighbors and fellow citizens were killed, a cellist played the Albinoni Adagio.This real incident is the basis for Galloway’s novel, in which he compresses four years of the war into three weeks. He follows three rather ordinary Sarajevans: Arrow, a female university student turned sniper; Kenan, a young father of two children; Dagan, a 64 year old baker whose wife and son were evacuated to Italy before leaving became impossible. The main action follows Kenan, as he makes an every 4-day, extremely dangerous journey to a brewery in order to obtain water for his family, Dagan, as he tries to go to the bakery to get a free loaf of bread, and Arrow, who is given the assignment of protecting the cellist, since he has become a symbol of resistance to the degradation of the war.Galloway does a superb job in portraying the horrors of civilian life in just trying to stay alive under the most desperate and dangerous conditions. No little thing can be taken for granted; the opposing army has shut off the water to the city, so just getting water becomes a life-threatening act, as the besiegers, through snipers and artillery fire, deliberately kill civilians. There is a relatively safe passageway through a tunnel underneath the airport to unoccupied territory, but that is controlled by the Sarajevan army and the criminal element, who take the aid donated by the world for the relief of Sarajevo and sell it on the black market. There is a resolution to the story, but it is a moral one, rather than a physical one, as each character independently reaches the same conclusion about the the way they will resist the moral degradation being forced on them.Ultimately, this is a story about decisions, those made day-by-day and even minute by minute. Galloway makes a forceful statement about our lives being the sum total of those decisions, and that each one--whether to pull a trigger and end a human life or whether to cross a street at this moment and not the next one, have vast consequences. It is a very Zen-like statement.While powerful, the book has several severe flaws. Arrow has a distinct personality, but Dagan and Kenan are indistinguishable; if you don’t have the chapter headings, given their identical reactions and thoughts, it’s easy to lose sight of just what character is playing. Also, there are pages of retrospection on the part of each of the three, as they reach their conclusions of how they must act. I am probably as introspective as anyone outside of a mental institution, but even I can not imagine, when terrified for my life, trying to decide whether to choose this moment or the next to cross a street under random sniper fire, after watching someone’s head being blown off, that I would be spending that time musing on cultural values. For me, this aspect was beyond credulity. Yet it’s an integral part of the story line in order for Galloway to have his characters resolve their moral dilemmas. Galloway spent a great deal of time with survivors of Sarajevo, and visited the city. I suspect that this philosophizing did go on, but I doubt strongly that it was under fire, as Galloway portrays it.Still, in its depiction of what war can do to the ordinary person, it’s a powerful, if flawed, book.
    • 5/5
      During the Bosnian War, between 1992 and 1995, Serbian forces besieged the city of Sarajevo, killing thousands and wounding many more. During this siege, a cellist looks out of his window and sees a mortar fall onto a square outside his apartment building, killing 22 people standing in line to buy bread. For 22 days after the tragedy, and without a care for his own safety, he brings a stool and his cello,and plays a haunting adagio at the site of the massacre.A man, Dragan, who sent his wife and son out of the country before the siege, seeks to isolate himself from everyone, thinking it will be his protection. He detaches himself from the deaths he sees almost daily until he meets a friend of his wife's on the street, and sees her shot as she tries to cross an intersection that is targeted by snipers. Kenan, takes risks every time he treks to a brewery on the other side of the city, to fill his plastic containers with water for his family, and that of a crochety old neighbor.A young woman, going by the name of Arrow, a former university student and ace target shooter, becomes a sniper, to kill those who seek to kill Sarajevans and who have taught her how to hate. But her skills bring her to the attention of those who would seek to turn her into a killing machine. What she chooses makes for an extremely poignant ending to this excellent book.The cellist's music provides the backdrop in this haunting story of 4 people trying to survive a senseless war, trying not to lose hope, dignity and their own humanity.Part of this book was inspired by Vedran Smailovic, a cellist who did indeed play for 22 days at the site where 22 people had been killed in Sarajevo.
    • 5/5
      The siege of Sarajevo took place from 5/4/1992 to 29/2/1996; approximately 10000 people were killed by shells which hit the city every day and by gunfire from snipers in the surrounding hills as they went about the vital business of obtaining food and water.The cellist was a symbol of hope for many people as he sat in the square and played each day for 22 days in memory of the 22 people who had been killed there by a bomb. The story is a true story and I found the courage of the people so inspiring.
    • 5/5
      This book is both powerful and complex, but also deceptively simple. When I was about half-way through, I was thinking that it wasn't nearly as strong as I'd expected considering all the reviews and conversations I'd seen on LT--in general, I felt I'd expected more. Yet, at some point, what was just a carefully drawn story became more powerful and more lasting, without my even realizing it until I was nearly finished. In this way, I'm still not entirely sure how to talk about the book, and may have to come back to this review later.When it comes down to it, this book will stay with me, and may be something I end up teaching. It is beautifully and carefully woven together into a powerful story that draws you in slowly but surely, and won't release until you've finished. The characters are as real as one could wish for, and the entire thing is entirely too believable, and heartbreaking in its beauty. I would have liked a little bit more material from the cellist's point of view, which is really my only criticism, but I can understand why the author focused more on the other three characters. The end result is well worth the read, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it on to nearly any reader, high school age or above.
    • 5/5
      The Cellist of Sarajevo is a beautiful and hopeful book. Taking place during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990's, the book follows the stories of three characters struggling to survive during this war. The central character is the Cellist himself, who witnesses a bombing which took the lives of 22 people waiting in line for food. He vows to play a particularly difficult and emotional piece of music for 22 days straight in honor of the victims. One of the characters we follow is a female sniper who has assumed the name Arrow and is tasked with protecting the Cellist while he is playing. Dragan and Kenan are the two other characters who venture out into the city day after day to find food and water for themselves and their families. Dragan, Kenan, and Arrow all see the horrors of war on a daily basis and deal with it different ways; Arrow adopts a different persona, Dragan isolates himself, and Kenan protects himself through cowardice. Each one of these characters has lost themselves through this war, but each one finds their humanity again, giving us all faith in the resiliency of the human spirit. I highly recommend this book!
    • 5/5
      In 1992, civil war breaks out in Sarajevo. The violence of war often brings out the worst in us, breeding evil, greed, selfishness and corruption. Before long, the people become inured to the death and destruction around them and soon begin to view it almost as normal life. If they don’t accept it, if they are stalwart and reject the values of their enemies, they will not succumb to their demands. Violence and death in the streets occur indiscriminately, but the murderers can search within themselves, they do not have to murder arbitrarily.There are only a few important characters in this book. One is an accomplished professional musician, a cellist who decides to go outside, in spite of the danger, to play his cello for 22 days, one day for each of the innocent victims who died during a mortar attack as they waited to buy bread at the bakery. This story is very loosely based on Verdran Smailovic, a very real cellist who played his instrument during the war.Then there is Arrow, not her real name, a professional sniper in the army, whose job it is to protect the cellist because the cellist is giving the people of Sarajevo hope for the future and has become a target. When her commanding officer loses his moral compass, she is forced to make a difficult choice.Kenan is a husband and father who goes out every three or four days to collect water for his family and also for an elderly, cantankerous neighbor, a survivor from the concentration camps of WWII. The walk to the brewery, the only place to get fresh water, is fraught with danger, and he often freezes in fear and contemplates his reasons for going. His task is made harder because his neighbor won't use jugs with handles, forcing him to double back several times to get the water home. He questions his reasons for helping such an ungrateful person.Dragan, a man in his mid sixties, works in a bakery, the same bakery whose customers were killed while waiting on line for bread. He came late to fatherhood, and out of concern for his wife and son’s safety, he sent them to Italy while he remained behind to watch their home. When he witnesses a sniper attack on a woman who is a friend of his wife, and he sees others shot down before him, alive one minute, dead the next, he experiences a cataclysmic change of his rationale about life.The citizens of Sarajevo must face fear every day. Some go about their business ignoring it, some become brave and help others, some freeze and can do nothing but stare at victims and witness the devastation in horror. They have become used to the idea that the war will never end and they begin to lose their own humanity, but the cellist returns them to their senses. His bravery and dedication inspire them to believe in tomorrow; he gives them hope.The danger and caprice of war, when it comes to victims is movingly portrayed. They are prey and are helpless to defend themselves. After awhile, both sides that are fighting lose sight of their purpose and the hero and villain become interchangeable, both behaving heinously, indiscriminately committing murder.The audio was read very well, and I finished it in half a day, unable to stop because it was such a compelling story that had many philosophical lessons to teach. We don’t have to succumb to our basest instincts. War can destroy all feelings of mercy and decency, but we can recover and restore our humanity in the face of the most heinous evil, if we dare to hope for the future and are strong enough to face it.
    • 4/5
      Four citizens of Sarajevo are connected by one of them - a cellist who vows to perform Albonini's Adagio once per day in honor of the 22 victims of a missile strike at a bakery. Powerful images of war and the effects on the civilian population as well as the soldiers.
    • 5/5
      This was not a history of the Siege of Sarajevo, and I realise that, but it's darn close. What Galloway did with the material he had gleaned was amazing, to say the least. The emotions were just as raw, the experiences just as real, as it would have been there and then. It was heart wrenching on the parts of everyone portrayed in the story - even Arrow, who has an historical basis for her character.

      I felt the cellist touch his instrument. I felt the pain of losing the people in that mortar attack. I felt the real need to, no matter the threat to life, do what he did for nearly a month.

      There was so much in there, and Mr. Galloway led the reader, without a direct explanation, to understand a little of the mentality and strategy of both sides.

      "Powerful" is an understatement.
    • 5/5
      A painful yet elegant look at the suffering of regular citizens during a terrible war.
    • 5/5
      Heart wrenching story of 3 different protagonists- two ordinary Sarajavan citizens and a young woman with a deadly skill - 22 people get shot by snipers and a Cellist decides to play at 4pm every afternoon for 22 days to dignify and honour them. All 3 characters struggle with fear and face what each believes is their meaning in life. The book is beautifully written and skillfully read. It’s a must read or must listen. Deeply moving and thought provoking.
    • 5/5
      One of the best I've read
    • 3/5
      This is a good book, it just took me a while. It wasn't hugely exciting where you just can't wait to delve back into it. If the book was a movie, it would have been a slower indie drama filled with landscape and background shots. Still the story was good and you bounce around between 4 different lives of the same situation. I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a calm, lazy weekend read.
    • 5/5
      Moving, touching and emotional. I use it as a Peace Education reading for my middle school students. Five stars is not enough. Author is a humble and effective speaker, also.
    • 5/5
      A superb read. It was especially poignant after visiting Sarajevo and walking in those same streets and across the same tram tracks and riding the tram to the bus station. The brewery where the only fresh water was available during the 1990s war is the same one where we had dinner on Tuesday night. The writing is excellent and does what I like in a book: creates the tone and characters' feelings through words and actions and doesn't tell me what I should think. Brilliant.
    • 5/5
      sad, disturbing
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly crafted novel focused on three Sarajevans and how their lives and their city were affected by the Siege. The Cellist (a fictional portrayal of the real life Cellist) binds these three characters together. Each of the characters are forced to decide how they want their lives to change or remain the same, both from the perspective of how they act towards others and how they treat their inner selves. Written in a simple style on the surface; there is definitely a depth that makes this book a worthy read.
    • 4/5
      Early reviewer's copy - The Cellist of Sarajevo conveys an interesting perspective on a horrendous period of war. Instead of the frontlines, as is the focus of many war novels, The Cellist focuses on 4 individuals living their every day lives in a war zone - with the resulting pains of practical life, loss of their "norm", emotional exhaustion, and a moral struggle for purpose to continue. Each of the stories is compelling and intense, but something about the style made me feel like I was watching the story from afar rather engaging in their individual sitations. I felt empathy for each, but not an emotional involvement.Most compelling is the fact that, although fiction, the story is based on a true story of a cellist playing for 22 days at the site of a mortar shelling to honor those killed. The importance of this memorial to the citizens of Sarajevo during its seige is unimaginable, and this book takes great steps in helping us understand.
    • 5/5
      I don’t remember much about the Bosnian war. I was back at school and having to work hard to get good marks. I hardly watched any television and I read the paper seldom. After the war was over we heard lots about the atrocities that occurred and by that time I was paying attention. But I still don’t recall hearing much about the Siege of Sarajevo. So, at the very least, this book filled that lack in my knowledge.But it did so much more than that. The title of the book is drawn from a real example. On May 27, 1992 at 4 pm twenty-two people standing in line for bread were killed by mortar shells. The principle cellist for the Sarajevo Symphony, Vedran Smailovic, witnessed this from his apartment. The next day at 4 pm and for 21 consecutive days he put on his tuxedo and went down to the location of the explosion. He played Albinoni’s Adagio to honour the 22 dead.This book is the story of the cellist but also of three other people living in Sarajevo at the time. Arrow is a sniper. She makes shots that no-one else can make. Her supervisor asks her to protect the cellist by killing anyone the opposing force sends to kill him. Kenan is a father and husband who used to be a clerk before the war took away his workplace. These days he provides for his family as best he can in a city that lacks most basics. Water, that most basic of necessities, requires a long trip across the city and into the hills to the brewery which has a spring in its basement so the water is clean. It’s a dangerous passage and he can get only 24 liters at a time for his family. This lasts for about 4 days which means that each person in the family gets about 1200 mL a day for drinking and washing and meal preparation. Dragan is an older man who sent his wife and son to Italy just before the blockade went into effect. He stayed behind to look after his apartment (which was subsequently destroyed). He is a baker and still has a job but he’s living with his sister. To get to the bakery he has to cross an intersection that a sniper regularly targets. He meets up with Emina, a friend of his wife, who has to cross the same intersection.All three of these people have to make difficult decisions about how they conduct their lives now during the war because they know that will impact their lives after the war is over. The cellist provides an example of how to live and for each of them they choose a path that they know they can live with after. Since they are ordinary people their situations spoke meaningfully to me. We might not all be talented musicians that can use our talent to give hope to others but small actions (or non-actions) can be important.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      “Men on the Hills” sounds like such a simple harmless phrase, but taken in the context of this mesmerizing novel, it’s meaning morphs into one of horror, dread, hopelessness and death. This is war ravaged Sarajevo. It is the mid-90s and this once beautiful city is under constant siege. The story follows several characters as they struggle to survive, in these harrowing conditions. One man tries to collect water for his family and this seemly mundane task, becomes an incredibly dangerous mission. Another is a young woman, who is chosen as a sniper, to assist the “defenders” in battling the “men on the hills”. Here is a passage, featuring the title character:“He was the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra. That was what he knew how to be. He made the idea of music an actuality. When he stepped on onstage in his tuxedo he was transformed into an instrument of deliverance. He gave to the people who came to listen what he loved most in the world. He was as solid as the vice of his father’s hand.”This is a must read! Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      During the siege of Sarajevo a bomb is dropped on a marketplace and 22 people, there in hopes of buying bread, are killed. The lead cellist of the Sarajevo orchestra vows to play his cello at this spot every day at 4:00 (the time of the bombing) for 22 days, one day for each life lost. Through the eyes of 3 different people the horrors of living in a city under siege and their struggles to maintain their pre-war self identities are revealed. A very interesting book and well worth reading
    • 4/5
      I visited Sarajevo when it was peaceful and still a part of Yugoslavia in 1963, It was a shock to me when the war started and the city was under siege. This novel takes as it's starting point the real cellist who played for 22 days in memory of the number of people who were killed waiting for bread at a bakery. It features three civerse individuals, one woman and two men who try to survive this terrible time. The woman is a sniper who is chosen to protect the cellist until her bossis replaced. The men endure hardships just to get around the city, afraid to cross certain streets because of snipers in the hills. The author shows you again how terrible war is and how people try to survive under difficult circumstances.
    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful book about a horrible thing: the Siege of Sarajevo. It's three stories about three individuals all dealing with the devastation wrought by the "men on the hill" who shoot and shell their precious city: Arrow, a sniper who seeks to kill the men who are killing her city; Kenan, who must walk through the dangerous city to fill his water containers so that his family will have water; and Dragan, who is making an equally dangerous trek to get bread for his family. Interwoven within all the stories, the unifying thread, is the cellist, member of a symphony orchestra which was torn apart by the war. From his window, he has witnessed an attack which killed 22 people in a bread line. Now, for 22 days, he will sit in the crater where they died and play Albinoni's Adagio.I will admit, it was the mention of the Adagio in those opening paragraphs that helped to pull me in. It's a favorite piece of mine, and I listened to my recording of it repeatedly as I read the book. My recording is the full orchestral version, rather than a lone cello like in the book, but that is one haunting, stunningly beautiful melody -- however it is played. And this is one haunting, stunningly beautiful book
    • 4/5
      This book was a marvel of beautiful simplicity--without moralizing it told the story of several people surviving the siege of Sarajevo. Read Zlata's Diary to add even more depth to this story--it's hard to believe that a modern city could descend into survival mode so quickly. We forget how easily we can slip into evil. This book should be added to the canon of All Quiet on the Western Front and Diary of a Young Girl.
    • 5/5
      The books is set during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990's, and based on a real incident where a cellist played the same piece once a day for 22 days to commemorate the 22 people killed by a mortar while standing in a line to buy bread. The author puts us inside the head of 3 imagined people - 2 men just trying to survive and get food and water for their families while snipers on the hills surrounding Sarajevo pick off people just trying to cross a street, and a female counter-sniper who is given the assignment of trying to protect the cellist while he plays. We feel what life was like in the once-vibrant city, now bombed and destroyed, with no electricity or running water. The story is haunting and the characters ring true and stay with you long after you turn the last page. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      How does one retain humanity in the midst of war? Carry on, continue to do what one must to survive, but most importantly, continue to reach out to others, keep some semblance of society, some respect. Powerfully written, I felt what it might be like to be there, with bombings and sniper fire a fact of life.
    • 4/5
      One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,” the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.Slow moving at the start. None of the characters in the novel are connected with each other, which makes it difficult to really get into the book.
    • 4/5
      I love to read books that help me experience a new city or culture--when I can picture the exact town or restaurant or city in a book, I frequently get bored. Yet so many books that transport you to a new place fall flat in bringing the place to life. Not so for The Cellist of Sarajevo. I was there, in Sarajevo, my heart racing as a character crossed an intersection or a bridge, anticipating being caught by a sniper. Or being the sniper, as in the case of Arrow--a memorable character who refuses to budge on her ideas of humanity, despite being a professional killer. I highly recommend this book!
    • 5/5
      Steven Galloway’s spare novel The Cellist of Sarajevo will be haunting me for a long time. I honestly couldn’t tell you when a work of fiction made me stop and think so hard about the world we live in.As the novels opens, the siege of Sarajevo is underway, and 22 innocent civilians have just died from a shelling attack while they were waiting in line to buy bread. The eponymous cellist watched it all from his window. They were his friends and neighbors. For reasons never explained (and without need of explanation) the unnamed cellist decides he will play an adagio on the spot of the attack for the next 22 days.This small gesture of beauty in the midst of senseless violence and horror makes the man a target. The attackers of the city, described only as “the men on the hill” will want to make a lesson of him—though exactly what that lesson is I’m not sure. The military men defending the city want the cellist protected. They assign that job to the second of four central characters the novel revolves around. She is a sniper, going only by the name Arrow. She was once a happy student at the University, but now she is a weapon in human form. Every day she struggles with her personal moral compass.The third character is Kenan, a mild-mannered husband and father. The gauntlet he runs every few days is the long trek across town to collect fresh water for his family. No one is Sarajevo is safe. Every time they step outside, they are facing death (although staying inside is no safer with buildings being bombed daily). Kenan’s terror at leaving home is echoed by the fourth character, Dagnan, a baker on the way to work who is literally paralyzed by the prospect of crossing the street. If he crosses the street, will he be shot? If he doesn’t cross the street, how will he eat?The characters in this novel are living in a world gone mad. And it wasn’t decades ago. It wasn’t a third world country. It was barely a 12 years ago in a major European city. I was a young adult at the time, largely ignoring the news. Reading this (mercifully) short, profoundly moving story sent me to the history books trying to understand what this conflict was about. I still don’t understand. But this novel gave me a new comprehension of what war really means. Galloway brought war into a world very familiar to me. It kept me awake at night. This is a novel that should be read by all thinking people.