Apologia

Steven Galloway is a Canadian author most popular for his recent novel, “The Cellist of Sarajevo”. At the age of 33 he has written three novels in addition to being the Cliff Writer in Residence at the University of British Colombia and the Fiction Mentor at Simon Fraser University. With the release of “The Cellist of Sarajevo” in 2008, Galloway burst into the scene of famous Canadian authors. The novel has received many glowing reviews and “has critics’ keyboards fluttering with synonyms for “moving” and “humane” (Grace). Clearly Galloway has a lot of potential still to be discovered as a relatively young author.

The Siege of Sarajevo took place from 1992 until 1996 and is the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. When the siege began all roads and means of escape from Sarajevo were destroyed or shut down. With no means of escape or refuge, “400,000 residents were trapped in the siege, and they were cut off from food, medicine, water, and supplies of electricity” (Zoephel). During the siege targets were rarely discriminated, so there was literally no safe place within the city. To further ensure this, “Red Cross trucks which were given clearance to enter Sarajevo, were raided and destroyed” (Zoephel), leaving minimal aid to civilians. When the Dayton accord ended the siege over 15000 people had died, and countless crimes on humanity had been committed in nearly every variation. Of those 15 000, “Some 1800 of the casualties were children” (BBC). While “The Cellist of Sarajevo” was entirely a work of fiction it was largely based on this siege. This novel was very effective in showing what the siege was like through the eyes of a civilian. Since many wartime stories follow only people who are directly involved in the war, this novel follows two characters who are just trying to go about their “normal” lives. This offers an alarming perspective on the realities of such warfare. Galloway expressed that one of his goals was to show “what high-pressure, wartime situations do to ordinary people — not professional soldiers, or generals or politicians” (Grace). In this sense the novel has helped raise awareness of the realities that are war. As this novel grows in popularity more people will be made increasingly aware of the realities of this siege.

While this novel is about the siege, the politics of the situation are removed from the novel entirely. Galloway does this by referring to the attackers not as Serbs, instead he “described [them] only as the men on the hills” (Grace). In doing this Galloway is able to not only show us the horrors of this siege, but to also incorporate his own plot into the story without it being “historically inaccurate”. Having the story take place during the siege makes us ask ourselves questions about the way we treat other people. To further continue with this idea, Galloway uses the cellist’s music to show us how art can “evoke emotion and remind us we are human” (Planta). Seeing the effectiveness of the cellist performance, definitely does “remind the characters they are human”. Even the Serb sniper (or a “man from the hills”) who is sent to assassinate the cellist cannot help but listen to the music, even though he has a clear shot he could have easily taken twice. When Arrow (the sniper sent to kill the man sent to assassinate the cellist)sees that he is unable to shoot , she knows “she does not want to kill this man, and that she must kill this man”(Galloway 153). Seeing how the cellist music is able to make peace and remind the soldiers how simple life can be when the struggles of life are put behind them is very important message in this novel. It shows us just how essential the arts are to our lives.