The Cellist of Sarajevo - Hardcover

Galloway, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594489866 ISBN 13: 9781594489860

Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2008

Synopsis

While a cellist plays at the site of a mortar attack to commemorate the deaths of twenty-two friends and neighbors, two other men set out in search of bread and water to keep themselves alive, and a woman sniper secretly protects the life of the cellist as her army becomes increasingly threatening.

About this title

Review:

Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo is set in war-torn Sarajevo in the Nineties. When 22 civilians are killed as they queue for water a cellist determines to play the piece of music that gives him the most hope, Tomaso Albinoni s Adagio in G minor, at the same spot every day for 22 days in their memory. Meanwhile, three other Sarajevans live their lives in constant peril. Kenan, frightened but determined to make the dangerous, daily journey to fetch water for his family; Dragan, who has to cross the city to get to the bakery where he works; and Arrow, the nom de guerre of a young sniper assigned to protect the cellist. Wonderfully moving. --Kati Nicholl, Express.co.uk

Why did the Sarajevan cross the road? To get to the other side without fatally exposing himself to sniper fire. In Sarajevo, the city that was under siege for three hellish years in the early 1990s, every excursion outside was a risk. 'Sniper alley' wasn't just the road that international journalists took between the airport and the Holiday Inn, reflects Kenan, one of the three intertwined characters enduring the almost unendurable in this novel. Kenan braves the streets to collect water for his family; Dragan has to go to the bakery where he works; and Arrow is on a mission to pick off with her rifle the gunmen aiming at her area. Amid it all, a cellist emerges daily to play Albinoni's Adagio at the spot where the enemy wiped out a bread queue a real event around which Galloway has created this intimate chamber-piece novel. Strains of the haunting work, played by Sarah Butcher in a specially made recording, add to the book s power to move. --Karen Robinson, Sunday Times

Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo is an elegant fictional embroidery of a true protest: that of the cellist Vedran Smailovic, who mourned the deaths of 22 people who were queuing outside a shop when a missile struck them by playing Albinoni's Adagio on the same spot on 22 successive days, despite the ubiquitous snipers. The novel shows how the cellist s protest affects other people's struggles with their consciences. One is a sniper who finds that her task of protecting the cellist presents her with ethical problems. Gareth Armstrong narrates with impeccable pace and timing, beautifully counter-pointed by Sarah Butcher's playing of Albinoni's music. --Christina Hardyment, The Times

In 1990s Sarajevo, war is devouring people's lives. In the midst of this vividly conveyed hell of massacre and destruction, one cellist braves the snipers to play his tribute to the dead. This is based on a true story and includes Albinoni's haunting Adagio. --Rachel Redford, The Observer

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, read by Gareth Armstrong. In this novel inspired by the true story of a cellist facing extreme danger during the siege of Sarajevo, the music referred to was an arrangement of Albinoni s famous Adagio. For the audio book, English cellist Sarah Butcher, who plays for Glyndebourne Opera and the London Mozart Players, plays the work and adds background music to the narration. --- Shannon Maughan, Publishers Weekly

Book Description:

The Top 10 International Bestseller, now in paperback.

'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

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1594489866
• ISBN 13: 9781594489860
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 235