I requested The Cellist of Sarajevo from the library a long time ago, and it arrived at my local branch last week. A completely serendipitous event, as I hadn’t made the connection between Steven Galloway’s book and my recent read, Peacekeeper.

I am now here to tell you that they are connected, in fascinating ways. And everyone should read Peacekeeper first, and The Cellist of Sarajevo second. It’s like having a history lesson, or flying over a battle in a helicopter (that would be Peacekeeper), and then walking the streets during the actual fighting (that would be Cellist). A different view of the same incidents, viscerally affecting for completely different reasons.

On a side-note, Steven Galloway is a master at creating entire scenes from the suspense of nothing happening, rather than from the action of events (a talent that has always intrigued me). One of his main characters spends pretty much the entire book cowering behind a barricade at a city intersection.