The Cellist of Sarajevo

The Cellist of Sarajevo, the novel is inspired by true events that occurred during the siege of Sarajevo in the nineties. The story starts with the cellist, who is considered as “the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra”; he is playing Albinoin’s Adagio next to a spot where people are waiting in a queue for buying bread in the market. All of sudden, twenty-two people are killed in a flash by a mortar attack. The cellist decided to play twenty-two days for each of them, honoring their memory.

Throughout those twenty-two days, there are different stories from four main characters: Arrow, Dragan, Kenan and the Cellist about what is happening in the city which is being besieged by the enemies on the hill.

Arrow is a young sniper, who is assigned to protect the cellist throughout those twenty-two days. She is a person with a good sense of justice.  Although it was not her dead father’s will, neither hers, “It’s just something you do because life is a series of tiny, unavoidable decisions”. She does her job for the sake of protecting the innocent people and her city. She finishes her assignment pretty well at end.

Dragan, a 64-year-old man, works in a bakery, gets bread for his relatives. Before the war, to protect his family, he sent his wife and son to Italy, and he chose to stay in the city even though he is afraid of death. During the story, he has interaction with Emina, his wife’s friend, who is on her way to deliver medication; unfortunately, she gets injured in the middle of the way, and Dragan does not help her. She is taken away for medical care. However, at end, Dragan takes away a dead body from the scene of the camera, which will probably be published in front of the whole world. He is trying to protect the social image of his city, and the honor of a dead person.

Kenan, a middle-aged father of three kids, is risking his life for getting the water for his family during the war, which is considered one of the basic needs of life. Also, he tries hard to be generous and kind-hearted to his unkind neighbor Mrs.Ristovki, who gives Kenan some water bottles which are not easy to carry. Anyway, Kenan keeps his promise, showing a strong sense of responsibility.

Despite of separate description as small vignettes of four characters, the novel is well-organized in great detail. Nevertheless, there is a connection among them. No wonder, it is the cellist, which is also emphasized from the title of the novel. The story draws Kenan and Dragan into the orbit of cello music.

At very end of the chapter, Kenan has an encounter with the cellist, which changes his mind about the cellist and his music. At beginning, he doesn’t understand why the cellist plays every day on the same spot; he thinks “it was a foolish gesture, a pointless exercise in futility”. Then after he listens to the cellist’s play, he starts to “feels himself relax as the music seeps into him”, observing that “the cellist’s hair smoothes itself out, his beard disappears. A dirty tuxedo becomes clean, shoes polished bright as mirrors”. Everything around him turns into another way, clean, bright and organized. Even the building behind the cellist “repairs itself, and windows reassemble, clarify, and sparkle as the sun reflects off glass”. Kenan feels his city “heals itself around him”, with the cellist’s music continuing, he even sees his lovely family again with whom he walks, holding hands with joy, love, and hope.

 And the brave sniper Arrow is protecting the cellist throughout every single day of these twenty-two days. “She stays where she is. At four o’clock the cellist comes out and her finger tightens around the trigger”, in spite that she realized the feeling of hatred that grows into her gradually without notice, which she doesn’t like any part of it. For her, “The Sarajevo she fought for was one where you didn’t have to hate a person because of what they were”.

Music has a magnificent effect on this specific situation. It relieves the tension of the war. While listening to the music, people may start to think about the bright side, seize the positive part of life, and get more mental support and strength.

The city is being besieged, and there are shells, mortar-attacks everywhere in the city, especially in the intersections. Under this utterly different living condition, people’s life style has dramatically changed. There are no safe streets for a normal walk, no easy access for the water, no stable electricity supply, no working, no school…just for buying a piece of bread, for crossing the streets, for getting a bottle of water, you could lose  your life. There is no dignity in being a normal human being; you can be considered “a guinea pig” for reassurance of other’s life.

To a certain point, the nature of humanity can be revealed thoroughly, like fear of death: when Emina gets shot in the middle of the street, Dragan wants to help her, “but his feet don’t move, around him everyone is alive with frenzied energy, but he hasn’t stirred an inch”. He can’t move “because he is afraid”, “he isn’t built for war. He doesn’t want to be built for war”; like selfishness: businessmen make profit during the war, they increase incredibly the price for food in the market when normal people don’t have income anymore, life become harder not only because of the war, but also because of these greedy and selfish people make the situation even more difficult; and like responsibility: Kenan, at beginning, left Mrs.Ristovki’s bottles in the middle of way, at end, he find his way back to get those bottles, although they are hard to carry. To Kenan, “a promise is a promise”, he tries his best to keep his word at risk of losing his life. Moreover, there are generosity, cowardice; sense of justice; and bravery.

Through the well-developed narration of each story, we can understand more about war, about life, and about human nature. It shows us a vivid scene of every aspect. No doubt, it shows lots of valuable qualities of human beings. Nonetheless, a big event like a war can change the person in some way, both negative and positive. It can make people cherish more about what they used to have, which even seemed so simple and insignificant.