The cellist

The cellist, though he is Galloway’s titular character, is only given one section at the beginning of the novel. In limiting his readers’ access to the cellist, Galloway forces them to confront the cellist not for who he is, but what he does—that it, play music. Formerly the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra, the cellist remembers a time before the war when “he stepped onstage in his tuxedo [and] he was transformed into an instrument of deliverance. He gave to the people who came to listen what he loved most in the world” (xvii). This is the way he understands himself, and by allowing readers this limited but important window into his psyche, the rest of the novels is imbued with purpose and meaning.

After witnessing the deaths of twenty-two people in a tragic bombing at Sarajevo’s main marketplace, the cellist decides...