From the notes
This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst.I wonder what we will make of it.
There was a lot of mixed reactions to this book. Some people felt that it didn't have a lot of subsistence. Also, some of the story were distorted - in particular the details surrounding the cellist. From Wikipedia..
ReplyDeleteAnother Canadian author, Steven Galloway, used Smajlović as a peripheral character in his bestselling 2008 novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo. In the book, Smajlović plays every day at 4:00 pm for 22 days, always at the same time and location, to honour the 22 people killed by a mortar bomb while they queued for bread on May 26, 1992. The account, including the time of the mortar attack (which actually took place at 10.00 a.m.), is fictional.[1] Smailović publicly expressed outrage over the book's publication. He said, "They steal my name and identity," and added that he expected damages, an apology and compensation.
There was mention made of an Irish short story by Liam O'Flaherty call The sniper See http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/sniper.html