1. Author: Steven Galloway

                        Book Title: The Cellist of Sarajevo

2. What made you interested in this author?

I became interested in this author after I researched a bit of things about him. I learned that three of his novels have been published: "Finnie Walsh", "Ascension" and his most recent novel is "The Cellist of Sarajevo" and so far his novels have been translated into twenty different languages. Steven Galloway is also the creative writing professor at the University of British Columbia and after finding different reviews from "The National Post" and "The Globe and Mail" I knew that this book would be a good choice for my ISU.

3. Brief background on the author

Steven Galloway was born July 13^th, 1975 in Vancouver, British Columbia. He attended the Thompson Rivers University and The University of British Columbia. He teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia and currently resides in New Westminster British Columbia with his wife and 2 daughters.

4. Other published works and genres

Along with The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway has published two other novels: Finnie Walsh and Ascension. Finnie Walsh is about two boys who love hockey and are able to bond and face many hardships that life puts them through. When this book was published in 2000, the book was nominated for an amazon.ca/books in Canada First Novel award which gives new authors a chance to win an award for their book and potentially gain publicity. Ascension however is about a 66 year old Romanian man whose life events lead up to him eventually tight rope walking between the twin towers. It turns what would be an old folk tale into a gripping story of a mans life.
 

5.Information on particular places, time periods, events of influence or
interest to your author

I was unable to find any specific information on what the author prefers, but after looking at the novels he has written I would say he enjoys a historical writing aspect. He enjoys old Soviet history because 2 of his novels include small countries that came from Russia. And his first novel is about what it was like to grow up in Canada in the 60's where every kid played hockey, but the kids in his novel specifically had to face different trials and obstacles.

                      6. Themes favored by the author (gleaned from survey reading).

The Cellist of Sarajevo is a little different with its themes. It has three main characters:   Arrow, Kenaan and Dragan, all of which have different goals. This book shows the perspectives of three different characters in the novel and all of these characters were given different themes with them. Arrow has a reverse gender role theme like I explained in an earlier blog, Kenaan has a power theme because he has to control everyone in his life and Dragan has his family who fled Sarajevo and he is facing conflict with going to find them but worrying if he does then he will abandon Sarajevo. All of the conflict and themes in the book may have a person experience with the author I plan to research that the further I read into the novel.

                        7. Other authors compared to Steven Galloway 
I cannot compare Steven Galloway too any other author but I can relate the themes he talks  about in this novel to a previous book I have read. After constant reading I found that a recurring theme is fear. Everyone in Sarajevo lives in fear and all of the main characters deal with fear in their own way. I also found fear as a major theme in the novel Lord of The Flies. All of the young boys on the island always lived in a constant state of fear because the island was divided in a power struggle, as well as the battle between Ralph and Jack. This could be the same for the war going on in the book. Bosnian and Serbia are at war so it could be the same concept applied in both novels.

                        8. Critical Articles (Secondary Sources)

Steven , Galloway. "About Steven Galloway." Steven Galloway. The Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://www.stevengalloway.com/ >

Charlene , Davis. "Steven Galloway." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Dominion, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com>

Andrew , Lawless. "Three Monkeys Online." The Larger Conversation - Steven Galloway talks about The Cellist of Sarajevo. Three onkeys Online, n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2011. <http://www.threemonkeysonline.com>

Sarajevo: The Setting

Verdan Smailovic

Sarajevo is a city located in Bosnia which is where the novel takes place.  After doing some research I have established that this novel is set in the Bosnian War which took place between 1992-1995. During this war the city of Sarajevo was under constant bombardment of mortar attacks as well as constant snipers which claimed the lives of many citizens. This was an ongoing war and in the novel I’m starting to be able to piece together the characters and get a better understanding after I learned about the setting of the novel. Keenan could be a regular, everyday father, who lived in an apartment building that was bombed in the war and was just trying to survive with his family, and Arrow could be a sniper who was personally affected or trained for her entire life, I still do not have a perfect understanding of her character. I did however learn that there was in fact a real life cellist of Sarajevo.  His name is Vedran Smailovic, and he plays for the Sarajevo String Quartet. He played at many funerals for Men and women killed during the war often being targeted by enemy fire. He fled the country in late 1993 and has since been involved with in musical projects. After doing a bit of research about the background of the novel I have gotten a better understanding of what the author was trying to talk about in his masterpiece.

Through The Scope of Her Rifle She Can See Three Soliders

Today I read chapter two and I was very intrigued by a character named Arrow. Arrow’s character could play a major theme or issue in the novel. It seems as if her character has a reverse gender role, and I think this because she is a sixteen year old girl back fifty years ago and she is a well trained sniper, almost like she was thought professionally.  In stories like these you would usually see a male sixteen year old sniper but in the case of Arrow it is completely different. To your recollection can you think of any other characters in books that would be a teenaged military trained sniper but over fifty years ago? I could not think of anyone to relate her to. After reading today I am very curious to see if my prediction for Arrows reverse gender role is correct.  

It Screamed Downward, Splitting Air And Sky Without Effort (blog 1)

People should read this book because after the first chapter I am already hooked and wanting to read more. So far I have gotten a thorough introduction to a character known as the Cellist. I learned that he is a man whose life has been changed forever because of the constant battles that take place in the city of Sarajevo which is where the book takes place.  The Cellist was the lead cello player at the Sarajevo Opera House which was destroyed during a bombing from the invaders of the city who we have yet to be given any information on.  The Cellist  also plays the cello to give himself happiness and to restore hope to himself and potentially the city because shortly into the book he witnesses twenty two people killed by an enemy mortar, and the people were only waiting in line at a market stand trying to get their daily bread. We learned that the Cellist intends to play at the crater that was made by the enemy explosive for twenty-two consecutive days in memory of each person killed in the explosion.  I also found a section of the novel so far that describes the emotional aspect of the Cellist’s intentions “like every other day in recent memory, the cellist sits beside the window of his second-floor apartment and plays until he feel his hope has returned”.  This section gave me my understanding of the character and I hope that by reading it alone you can get a general understanding of what this character is like.

                 

Besides the character I also got an idea of the setting of the novel. It takes place in a city ravaged by war and is in a state of poverty brought on by death and destruction.  To me I get the impression that the city would be a major city, but specifically a major city centre in ruins.

                

 So far in the novel I am very intrigued by the novel and after skimming through the chapters I think that each characters parts are broken up into sections, so a question I look for to finding out the answer to is how this novel is organized and if the other characters are going to play a significant role in the cellists life.