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 Steven Galloway - The Cellist of Sarajevo
Vintage Canada 2008
Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo introduces three main characters struggling to stay alive in war-torn Sarajevo. We follow them through the events of a few days and learn more about their lives as they reflect on their pasts. Dragan, a baker, spends most of the story navigating to his bakery and back while dodging bullets. Kenan, a father of two, carries empty bottles across the city to a water pipe where he can fill them to supply his family and an elderly neighbor for a few days. Arrow, the lone female character and the city’s most skilled sharp-shooter, is charged with protecting the cellist. These characters allow us a glimpse into the personal heart of war, making sure we don’t view events from a detached perspective.
The cellist who gives the novel its title has taken it upon himself to perform each afternoon at the site of a bomb blast that killed twenty-two innocent civilians who were waiting in line for bread. This is no small feat in a city rocked with shells and bullets. Each day his fellow citizens gather to listen and draw courage from his music and the living memorial he is creating. The cellist becomes a symbol of courage and of the pride that Sarajevans once had in their city.
We began our discussion with a reflection on the three major characters. Kenan’s fear and shame are tangible; he wishes he could provide adequately for his family and raise his children in a safe environment. He spends an entire day fetching water, a task that gives him purpose and makes him finally feel useful. Kenan is frustrated with his thankless neighbor and contemplates not volunteering to carry water for her, but his goodness and honesty leave him incapable of neglecting this act of kindness, despite his fear.
Arrow struggles to separate herself from the killing tasks she carries out every day. She refuses to answer to her real name, choosing instead a name that she can discard when her role as sniper is finished. We thought Arrow is a reminder that it’s impossible to experience war and tragedy without somehow being changed.
All the characters in the book deal with the war-torn reality around them quite practically: fetching extra bread from the bakery; carrying water strategically in roped-together bottles; choosing targets and hiding spots. They find beautiful things in the midst of disaster, walking down previously unexplored streets to avoid bombed-out intersections. They meet new people. They do good things – fetching water, delivering medicine – that they wouldn’t have felt compelled to otherwise. At the same time, they detach themselves emotionally by playing mental games: avoiding old friends; dreaming of ice cream and long walks through the city, imagining reading stories at the now-destroyed library.
At this point in our discussion we reflected on the conflicts or disasters in our own communities and the techniques we develop for avoiding them. While the characters in Steven Galloway’s novel are unable to physically escape the horrors around them, we can avoid driving through sections of town that are stricken with poverty. Our communities are structured such that we don’t have to see the abuse or violence that occurs in our neighbours’ homes. As Kenan reflects,
“Buildings are eviscerated, burned, gutted, streetcars destroyed, roads and bridges blasted away, and you can see that, you can touch it and you can walk by it every day. But when people die they’re removed, taken to hospitals and graveyards, and before the bodies are healed or cold the spot where they were shattered is unrecognizable as a place where anything out of the ordinary happened. This is why the men on the hills are able to kill with impunity. If there were bodies in the streets, rotting where they fell, if the water from these taps didn’t wash away the blood and bone and skin, then maybe the men would be forced to stop, maybe they would want to stop.”
Kenan is wise to point out that it’s easier to kill people if you don’t have to see them. Perhaps we would deal with the problems in our society more rapidly if we had to look them in the face more often.
This is an excellent book to pick up if you’re looking for a quick read. It has well-developed characters, and the story is a strong affirmation of the power of music for any music lover. The Cellist of Sarajevo is also a learning experience. It gives a sense of what it’s like to be in a situation where you’re helpless. Steven Galloway presents a good dose of reality within the safe context of a great novel.
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 
