During the long siege of Sarajevo between 1992 to 1996, a cellist stood at his apartment window. He looked down at the bakery on the opposite side of the road and noticed that a queue was forming. This meant that people had learnt there might be loaves available. The cellist saw friends and neighbours and considered going down and joining the queue. As he watched, a mortar fell. The bakery was destroyed and the people in the queue were killed or badly injured. In fact 22 people were killed and the cellist, in his deep despair, sat outside, regardless of snipers, and played Albinoni’s Adagio every morning for 22 days. People came to watch and listen, people came to leave flowers at his feet.
So, all that is fact and Steven Galloway takes that scenario as the starting point for his story, all the rest is fiction based on fact. It is chilling, how suddenly what we would recognise as ordinary life disappears and people who had homes, jobs and families have to spend hours carrying plastic containers to get clean water. Decisions are made as to how and when to cross a bridge, knowing that there are snipers in the hills ready to kill. And, if the person in front of you is shot, well, you still need to cross the bridge, how ever long you decide to wait.
A powerful read and a well written narrative. An important book I think.