I finished The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway before our Spring Break trip. It was hard for me to read, simply because the content was deep and war is scary.
I loved the character of the Cellist, even though we don't really know anything about him aside from the fact that he was in the symphony- that he decides to play a symphony he composes for the war, one day for each victim of a specific massacre that occurred. The city is under siege, so snipers are everywhere and mortars are falling around him. His character is based on a real person, Vedran Smailovic, (who doesn't like the novel and is suing the author, FYI.)
The story rotates between four characters which I thought was interesting.
The descriptions of just crossing the street without dying, of going to get water for your family are heartbreaking. I can't imagine the horrors.
Mainly this book is about keeping your humanity in the face of war. And how it is very hard to do.
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