A beautiful, poignant, masterpiece.
The Cellist of Sarajevo is set during the siege of Sarajevo (April 1992 –
February 1996). The cellist refers to Vedran Smailović who played Albinoni’s Adagio, in the streets of Sarajevo for 22 days, in homage to 22 civilians who were killed while waiting in line to buy bread.
But the novel is fiction, and the cellist is never named, for the story is not truly about the cellist. It is about three souls, who like the cellist try to find normalcy in their desperate fight for survival.
Kenan is a family man, simply trying to keep his family alive. Kenan loves his city, and grieves for what it has become.
He knows that if he wants to be one of the people who rebuild the city, one of the people who have the right even to speak about how Sarajevo should repair itself, then he has to go outside and face the men on the hills. His family needs water, and he will get it for them.
Every fourth day or so, unless there is merciful rain, he must make a dangerous journey, within mortar range, and sniper range of the “men on the hills” simply to get water. When he closes the apartment door behind him, he pauses…
What he wants is to go back inside, crawl into bed, and sleep until this war is over. He wants to take his younger daughter to a carnival. He wants to sit up, anxious, waiting for his older daughter to return from a movie with a boy he doesn’t really like. He wants his son, the middle child, only ten years old, to think about anything other than how long it will be before he can join the army and fight.
Dragan is older, his wife and adult child, thank God, got out and are safe in Italy, but Dragan…
He doesn’t want to live under siege for the rest of this life, but to abandon the city to the men on the hills would mean that he would be forever homeless.
Before the tale is told, Dragan will risk his life to save a dead man.
All that matters is what he thinks. In the Sarajevo of his memory, it was completely unacceptable to have a dead man lying in the street. In the Sarajevo of today it’s normal.
And then there is Arrow who used to be someone else. She is only Arrow now, a weapon, a sniper – the best sniper – of the besieged forces within the city.
…she’s different from the snipers on the hills. She shoots only soldiers, they shoot unarmed men, women, children. When they kill a person, they seek a result that is far greater than the elimination of that individual. They are trying to kill the city.
When asked, she does not give her true name. She is not that person. She hopes she will be again one day.
She knows that in the city of her memory she wasn’t hungry, and she wasn’t bruised, and her shoulder didn’t bear the weight of a gun.
Arrow is sent by her commander to defend the cellist. They know an enemy sniper has been dispatched to kill the cellist. Arrow must stop him.
The cellist confuses her. She doesn’t know what he hopes to achieve with his playing. He can’t believe he will stop the war. He can’t believe he will save lives. Perhaps he has gone insane, but she doesn’t think so.
The fateful moment comes, she has the enemy sniper in her sights…
…she is, at once, sure of two things. The first is that she does not want to kill this man, and the second is that she must.
More would be a spoiler. It is powerful, poignant, bittersweet. It brought tears to my eyes.
My rating 4 ½ out of 5 stars
Other excerpts about the main characters
Kenan
What he wants is to go back inside, crawl into bed, and sleep until this war is over. He wants to take his younger daughter to a carnival. He wants to sit up, anxious, waiting for his older daughter to return from a movie with a boy he doesn’t really like. He wants his son, the middle child, only ten years old, to think about anything other than how long it will be before he can join the army and fight.
It isn’t clear to him how the world will think of the city now that thousands have been murdered. He suspects that what the world wants most is not to think of it at all.
They will rebuild the city without knowing whether this is the last time it will be done. They will earn the right to do this, any way they can, and when it is done, they’ll rest.
He knows that if he wants to be one of the people who rebuild the city, one of the people who have the right even to speak about how Sarajevo should repair itself, then he has to go outside and face the men on the hills. His family needs water, and he will get it for them.
Dragan
All that matters is what he thinks. In the Sarajevo of his memory, it was completely unacceptable to have a dead man lying in the street. In the Sarajevo of today it’s normal.
He doesn’t want to live under siege for the rest of this life, but to abandon the city to the men on the hills would mean that he would be forever homeless.
Arrow
It’s a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won’t last forever. ~ Arrow
She knows that in the city of her memory she wasn’t hungry, and she wasn’t bruised, and her shoulder didn’t bear the weight of a gun.
The cellist confuses her. She doesn’t know what he hopes to achieve with his playing. He can’t believe he will stop the war. He can’t believe he will save lives. Perhaps he has gone insane, but she doesn’t think so.
…she is, at once, sure of two things. The first is that she does not want to kill this man, and the second is that she must.
She kills them because she hates them. Does the fact that she has good reason to hate them absolve her?
My name is Alisa ~ (you may guess whose words these are)
I understand there is some drama in the personal life of the author. I am not informed enough to offer commentary. This review is only my opinion of this marvelous work of fiction.
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