Cellist of Sarajevo
is a novel inspired by Sarajevo in the Bosnian war. It is told by different characters
and how they experienced the war. It was a war of aggression, the Roman
Catholics and Muslims an Eastern Orthodox had ethnical issues. Steven Galloway
was inspired by the Cellist who played at funerals in a tuxedo in the wartime.
In the novel 22 people were killed when in line to buy bread, and the cellist
played every day for 22 days, in honour of the deceased. He played Albinoni’s
Adagio in the crater left by the shell at 16:00.
The men on the
hills - Snipers
Cellist
The Cellist was the
principal cellist player in the Sarajevo String Orchestra and he enjoyed it
very much. Now he only plays for himself until he feels his hope return. He
uses the music to rejuvenate him. Before the war he had a father who he looked
up to, and he misses the firm grip of his father’s hand. He saw how a bomb fell
on the bakery outside his window where his friends where standing in line. He
decided to play the cello for 22 days, each day for a person killed.
Arrow
She was a normal
woman before the war, she hated no one and loved her grandmother very much.
During the war she named herself Arrow because she wanted to separate the part
of her that fights back from the part who never wanted to fight. She is now a
sniper who shoots only soldiers, because she believed the core of a human being
is a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won’t last
forever, and soldiers robbed everyone of that gift.
Kenan
He is 39 of age and
lived in a house without water and electricity, and while life is more
difficult without electricity, it is impossible without water. His wife, Amila,
is 36, but looks 50. They have 3 children together. Every four days he fetches
water from the brewery, for him and his neighbour Mrs Ristovski. He desperately
wants his family to be happy and give them the life they deserve. However, he
and Amila can still make each other smile, and he appreciates it. He is tired,
tired from getting water, tired from the world he lives in, a world he never
wanted and had no part in creating and wishes didn’t exist. He’s tired of
carrying water for a woman who has never said a kind word to him, who acts as
if she is doing him a favour, whose bottles don’t have handles and who refuses
to switch.
Dragan
He is a 65-year old
baker who gets paid in bread to take home. He may eat at the employee cafeteria
for free, which he prefers, because if he eats there it means he doesn’t have
to eat at home. He lives in the past and confuses the beautiful Sarajevo that
once was with the Sarajevo which is bleak and in rubble. His wife, who is 6
years younger than him, Raza, and their 18-year old son, Davor, is now in
Italy, or so he thinks. He managed to get them out of the city before the war
started. He now lives with his sister, but doesn’t like his brother-in-law.
