Current read

Wednesday
Another grey dismal day, and other than going to the gym for a workout, I was at home most of the day, so I’ve resorted to an indoor blip.
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelves probably for a couple of years. I’m forever adding new titles to my to-read list, and sometimes the books I already have get passed over in favour of something more recent. The novel is set during the siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s and explores the dilemmas of ordinary people caught in the crisis. The title references the true story of Vedran Smailović, a cellist who played Albinoni's Adagio every day for 22 days, always at the same location, to honour the 22 people killed by a mortar bomb while they queued for bread at 10 in the morning on May 26, 1992. The novel follows the lives of three fictional citizens of Sarajevo as they struggle to survive the war: there’s Arrow, a female sniper with a conscience, caught up in a soldier’s world; Dragan, an elderly man trapped in the streets on his way to work; and Kenan, a young father facing death every few days, crossing the city to get clean water for his family. I’ve found the book incredibly moving, giving one a heartfelt glimpse into what it must have been like to live through the horrors of the siege, day after day, for almost four years. Steven Galloway isn’t Bosnian, or a journalist, and he didn’t survive the siege of Sarajevo, yet he writes in a very personal, realistic and moving style. I thoroughly recommend it if you haven’t already read it.