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Email a friendMemories of a bloodbath
SET in Sarajevo during the siege of the 1990s, this wonderfully written book is a grim and sometimes quite horrific read that shows people having to make some impossible choices.
Steven Galloway understands the instinctive drive for survival and many of his characters are unashamedly cynical and self interested, happy to let other more civic-minded types take the risks.
However, when the cellist starts to play his music in full view of the "men on the hills," all of this begins to change and people are forced to reassess their role in the wider scheme of things.
Keeping your head down, so it seems, is alright sometimes, but not when it begins to undermine your own humanity.
The contrast between how Sarajevo once was and how it is now is a constant theme throughout and there is an overwhelming sense of loss as Yugoslavs mourn the end of love, warmth and friendship.
It's a fitting testimony to one of the darkest and most often ignored episodes of recent European history.
STEVE ANDREW