Survey of Authors and Secondary Sources

    Author: Steven Galloway
    Novel: The Cellist of Sarajevo
   
     When I decided to read this novel, I had never heard of the author. So it was the book itself that had initially attracted me. Further into researching the novel, I had many reviews that had led me further into choosing the novel, and reassuring me he would be a great author.

    Steven Galloway was born in 1975, in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia. He attended The College of the Cariboo, as well as The University of British Columbia. He still currently lives is British Columbia, is married and has two daughters. While writing in the background, Steven works at the University of British Columbia as a creative writing instructor. As well as a mentor for
the writers studio at the Simon Fraser university.

     Steven has written two other novels in his career aside from The Cellist of Sarajevo. His three novels are;
-Finnie Walsh (2000)
-Ascension (2003)
-The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008)

    All of this authors novels are based on historical events that happened in the past. They are a combination of actual events and a twist of fiction added by the author. Steven Galloway had always had a desire to write about how war affected people. He usually concentrated on people that weren't soldiers, journalists, or politicians during that time. The event that inspired the novel I am reading now, The Cellist of Sarajevo, was the mortar attack on 22 people waiting in line to buy bread, and the cellist’s reaction to this event. This part of the novel; including the cellist, were based on true events. The first novel written by Steven did not follow the theme of two novels following. The first novel he wrote Finnie walsh was written about two child hood friends who grew up playing hockey together. The theme relates to more of a personal event, and could portray actual events that happened in Steven’s life.

     The second and third novel follow more of the same general theme, which seems to be tragedy. Through reading reviews for Ascension, I could tell that it followed the same theme as The Cellist of Sarajevo. Both the books concentrate on events that force people’s lives to take a turn for the worst.
   
   Steven is a very new author, having only writing three novels total. This makes it difficult to compare him to any other authors. One thing that I had noticed while reading was a theme that closely relates to a novel I had read in the past. The theme of fear used in Lord of the files is nearly identical to the way its used in The Cellist of Sarajevo. In Lord of the Flies, there is a constant state of fear on the island because of a conflict between Ralph and jack, dividing it into parts. This is the same in the The Cellist of Sarajevo because there is a conflict between the town of Sarajevo, and the people on the hills.


 



Biography

 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=ko_k12hs_d12&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U20436302&n=10&docNum=H1000187416&ST=Steven+Galloway+&bConts=2191

Secondary sources

Doran, Greg. "In The City." Canadian Literature 200 (2009): 152. General OneFile. Web. 4 Oct. 2011.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CA234570462&v=2.1&u=ko_k12hs_d12&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w

Tripathi, Salil. "Frailty in Sarajevo." New Statesman [1996] 11 Aug. 2008: 50+. General OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/infomark.do?action=interpret&u=ko_k12hs_d21&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=ko_k12hs_d21&docId=A184298883&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0&authCount=2

Flanders, Judith. "A dying fall." Spectator 31 May 2008: 42+. General OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/infomark.do?action=interpret&u=ko_k12hs_d21&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=ko_k12hs_d21&docId=A179695980&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0&authCount=2