Great writting styleDecember 17, 2008 L. Carr An incredibly interesting story with a very good writting style. I couldn't put it down.
Gripping and IncredibleAugust 31, 2008 Spudwil(North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) 8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this book. I couldn't put it down; my kids had to forage for their own dinner one night because I just had to keep reading. From the great character development and suspenseful plot to the amazingly hopeful and satisfying ending, this book will take you through the whole spectrum of emotions. I love how it is concise and to the point, making it an easy read for everyone. Not a page is wasted on unnecessary tangents off the storyline and the reader feels as if he is right there in the rubble with the characters, feeling their fear and despair. Such a great lesson in humanity, hope, and the perils and senselessness of war. My hat is off to the author.
A Marvelous Book of Enduring Themes Amidst WarJuly 19, 2008 Ernest Yanarella(Lexington, KY) 6 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book alternately mesmerizes and inflames. Its depiction of the siege of Sarajevo manages to tell something universal and quotidian at the same time. Its universal themes of life, death, hope, and despair are delicately balanced by its success in providing a sense of the everyday lives of a handful of Sarajevans seeking to negotiate the dangerous streets and byways of this war-torn city. The cellist of Sarajevo, nowhere given a name, serves as a magnet for sociality and a center for wide-ranging commentary and interpretation. For many, his actions serve as a mirror to the souls of the city's inhabitants and their estimate of the possibilities for a better future beyond war. The work is also a trenchant critique of the ravages of war and their impact on the humanity of all the combatants.
For these reasons and so many more, it is so sad that the real-life Cellist of Sarajevo has taken umbrage at this book's publication. His outrage toward the book and its author mistakes the role of the fictional cellist as the central figure in the book and therefore an assessment of his motives. It is really the characters who go about their daily lives amidst the devastation, risking their chance death by the hands of the mountain snipers, and yet mustering the courage to hope beyond the seemingly hopeless situation who are the true heroes. It is they--Dragan, Emina, Kenan, and ultimately Arrow--more than he who in this book find resources among the ruins of their formerly lovely city to keep on going and discover forbearance in universal things that matter to us all if we are to retain our humanity, when anger, hatred, and violence would be the greater temptation.
You Must Read This BookJuly 19, 2008 MacFly(Regina, Saskatchewan) 15 out of 16 found this review helpful
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway is a tremendous book. Set in Sarajevo during the siege of the city in the 1990s, the story is told from the perspective of three citizens of the city. To hear them talking about the way the city was before the siege and the average lives that they had before the war started is heartbreaking. Each and every day is a struggle to survive while trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life. The center of the story is about a cellist who plays to play every day for 22 days in a spot where 22 people were killed while standing in a line hoping for bread. He becomes a light for the darkness in a city of people desperate for something beautiful. While I found the story incredibly sad, it was also hopeful and reminds one of the role of the human spirit in any conflict. This is one of those books that will stay with me for quite some time. While a work of fiction, there are many elements that are true to this conflict. It made it look at it in a very different way that what you feel simply from news reports. I recommend this book to everyone.
