Strange Meeting

The Cellist of Sarajevo
Steven Galloway
Knopf Canada

Reading this book made me very sad.  One day, during the siege of Sarajevo, a mortar shell lands in a market and kills twenty two people.  A cellist, who witnesses this tragedy from his upstairs window, mourns the city's loss by playing Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor every day for twenty two days in the middle of the street.    His performance is heard by everyone including Arrow, the sniper who is sent to protect him, Dragan, the baker, who dodges bullets on his way to work, and Kenan, the father who risks his life to get water for his family and neighbours.  

The novel, which weaves the narratives of each of these characters into a gritty and gripping tale of war, reminds the reader about the power of art. People come from all over the city  to hear the cellist play and in his music they hear beauty, hope and humanity. Contrast this with the hopelessness and nameless of the war.  Notably, the author avoids using "descriptive" terms such as Bosnian, Serb or even Muslim.  It's just the "us" of the city's inhabitants against the "them" of the hills.  The cellist is positioned as one of "us" and the enemy sniper, who is sent to kill him, is one of "them."  The sniper blurs the line, however, when he fails to make the hit and instead closes his eyes to soak up the beauty of the music.  Arrow kills him anyway.  War is so awful. 

Suffice it to say that while I found this to be a difficult read (and by "difficult" I mean emotional) it is definitely Wilfred Owen worthy.  Four achingly beautiful adagios out of five.