A fictional account of lives caught up in the Siege of Sarajevo, the longest city siege in the history of modern warfare that lasted nearly four years from 1992 -1996.
Loosely based on the story of a renowned Sarajevo cellist who played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for 22 days to honour 22 people killed in a mortar attack queuing to buy bread in the besieged city in 1992.
'The Cellist of Sarajevo' is a powerful book concentrating on a few characters whose stories are interwoven in the tragedy of war as snipers in the hills overlook the shattered streets below. The writing is spare and gripping: a testament to the sorrow and pity of war across the world, past, present and future.
'The apartment she's in was once a nice home.On the walls opposite the windows, daggers of glass stick out of the plaster like darts stuck in a corkboard, and a slush of human occupation, papers, photographs, a shredded sofa lies discarded. Someone will come along eventually to pick it all up, if only to burn as fuel. She tries not to wonder too much about the people who used to live here, what they were like, if they were happy, if they are still alive, if they died here.'
'Every day, at four o'clock.' She turns towards him as she says this, as if there's something he does not understand.' Every day he sits there and plays. People go and listen. Some leave flowers. I've been several times. Sometimes I listen all the way through, and sometimes I leave after a few minutes.'
'In a few seconds the door will open. At least four men , maybe more , will burst through and, as quickly as they can, they will fire as many bullets into her as possible.
She hears one of them take a step back, knows he's about to kick in the door. She closes her eyes, recalls the notes she heard only yesterday, a melody that is now longer there but feels very close...'
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