One Maryland One Book

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The 2012 One Maryland One Book pick is The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

“I think it’s really exciting. I’ve had some exposure to community reading programs, and it has been universally positive. As an author, it’s indescribable when people are using your book for larger conversations beyond whether or not they like it. I think it’s wonderful, and I look forward to visiting Maryland in the fall.” ~ Steven Galloway

2012 Theme: Courage and Unity During Times of War

Celebrating its fifth year in 2012, One Maryland One Book is designed to bring together diverse people in communities across the state through the shared experience of reading the same book. Readers are then invited to participate in book-centered discussions and other associated programs at public libraries, high schools, colleges and universities, museums, bookstores, and community and senior centers. All related programming will take place in fall 2012. A calendar of free public programs will be available online beginning this summer.

Click here to learn how a $10 donation via text message can help to provide a copy of this year's One Maryland One Book selection for a local public school classroom or library (Message and data rates may apply).

The Cellist of Sarajevo, a novel by Steven Galloway, is the selection for One Maryland One Book 2012. Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns said of the book, “Though the setting is the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, this gripping novel transcends time and place. It is a universal story, and a testimony to the struggle to find meaning, grace, and humanity, even amid the most unimaginable horrors.”

Inspired by the actions of a real cellist during the siege of Sarajevo, the story is a haunting and beautiful tribute to the endurance of humanity in the face of merciless horror. After witnessing the death of twenty-two of his friends and neighbors in a mortar attack, the cellist sits at the site of the attack, a small crater left at the point of contact, where he plays Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor each day for twenty-two days—once for each of the dead. The story is told through the eyes of three individuals—one man braving the streets under threat of snipers to collect water for his family; one man who makes his way through the city in search of a meal and instead runs into an old friend who reminds him of the city before the war; and a young woman recruited for her expert marksmanship—now a sniper herself—who is charged with protecting the cellist.

About the Author, Steven Galloway
About the novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo

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