Caracters

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.