Steven Galloway

Un día, un obús cae sobre la cola que hay formada frente a una panadería y mata a veintidós personas, mientras el violonchelista lo ve todo desde su piso. Se hace la promesa de sentarse en el cráter que ha dejado el mortero y tocar el Adagio de Albinoni una vez al dia, y un dia por cada una de las victimas. El Adagio habia sido recompuesto a partir de un fragmento de la ultima partitura que sobrevivio al bombardeo de la biblioteca de musica de Dresden, pero el hecho de que haya sido transformado por otro compositor en algo nuevo y valioso insufla esperanza al violonchelista. Mientras tanto, Kenan se arma de valor para emprender su caminata semanal por las peligrosas calles en busca de agua para su familia, que vive en el otro extremo de la ciudad. Y Dragan, un hombre al que Kenan no conoce, intenta llegar al lugar donde trafica con comida y sabe que conseguira proteccion. Ambos estan practicamente paralizados por el miedo, sin saber a que punto de los puentes y las calles que deben cruzar ira a parar la proxima bala, sin querer hablar con sus antiguos amigos de como era la vida antes de que las divisiones se multiplicasen en su ciudad. Tambien esta Flecha, el pseudonimo de una diestra francotiradora a quien se le pide proteger al violonchelista de otro francotirador oculto qu

«Finnie Walsh permanecerá para siempre en mis pensamientos diarios, no sólo debido a las circunstancias de su impactante y absurda muerte, sino porque se las arregló para no entender lo que era realm

Tense and heartbreaking to its last page, ''The Cellist of Sarajevo'' shows how life under seige creates impossible moral choices. When the everyday act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.

In a city under siege, four people whose lives have been upended are ultimately reminded of what it is to be human. From his window, a musician sees twenty-two of his friends and neighbors waiting in a breadline. Then, in a flash, they are killed by a mortar attack. In an act of defiance, the man picks up his cello and decides to play at the site of the shelling for twenty-two days, honoring their memory. Elsewhere, a young man leaves home to collect drinking water for his family and, in the face of danger, must weigh the value of generosity against selfish survivalism. A third man, older, sets off in search of bread and distraction and instead runs into a long-ago friend who reminds him of the city he thought he had lost, and the man he once was. As both men are drawn into the orbit of cello music, a fourth characteraa young woman, a sniperaholds the fate of the cellist in her hands. As she protects him with her life, her own army prepares to challenge the kind of person she has become.

It is the summer of 1976 and Salvo Ursari, a man of retirement age, is walking on a taut wire strung between the twin towers of New York''s World Trade Centre, almost 1400 feet above the city. It is the most challenging performance of his life. Far below him in the gaping crowd stands his wife, Anna, to whom he has made a solemn promise. This is a new title from the author of the Richard & Judy bestseller "The Cellist of Sarajevo". This is an unforgettable walk with Salvo Ursari, tightrope walker extraordinaire. Gripping from its very first heartstopping page, "Ascension" is a breathtaking novel about risk, fate and history; a dazzling feat of storytelling that takes us on an epic journey across the twentieth century. It is the summer of 1976 and Salvo Ursari, a man of retirement age, is walking on a taut wire strung between the twin towers of New York''s World Trade Centre, almost 1400 feet above the city. It is the most challenging performance of his life. Far below him in the gaping crowd stands his wife, Anna, to whom he has made a solemn promise: this wire walk will end his career. As a boy growing up in Transylvania, Salvo Ursari is haunted and inspired by the gypsy folklore that forms his heritage. When a tragic fire that envelops his entire family, Salvo is forced to flee his village and begin a lifetime''s odyssey that takes him through the Transylvanian forests, to the streets Budapest - where he first learns the skills of a wire-walker - and eventually to the United States during the heyday of the Big Top.

"How much of our lives is real and how much is an illusion? The world's gaze is focussed on the feats and daring of the amazing Harry Houdini, while not a soul is aware of down-and-out Martin Strauss. However, Strauss' fate is inextricably linked with the magician's, and as Houdini continues to rise, and Strauss continues to fall, their lives will converge in spectacular and devastating fashion...At once entertaining and suspenseful, historically rich and cleverly told, The Confabulist is an novel of magic and memory, truth and illusion, and the ways that love, hope, grief, and imagination can - for better or for worse - alter what we perceive and what we believe."

"The whole world knows me as the man who killed Harry Houdini, the most famous person on the planet. But there is a secret that no one knows, save for myself and one other person who likely died long ago...The Confabulist is the spellbinding story of Harry Houdini - his life, his loves, his feats of daring and his sudden death - and misfit Martin Strauss, a man whose fate seems to be inextricably bound to the showman''s in calamitous ways. It is a brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and what we believe."

The Top 10 International Bestseller, now in paperback. A universal story, and a testimony to the struggle to find meaning, grace, and humanity, even amid the most unimaginable horrors. Khaled Hossein

This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst. One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni's Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope. Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn't know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is "Arrow," the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims. In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.

The Top 10 International BestsellerSnipers in the hills overlook the shattered streets of Sarajevo. Knowing that the next bullet could strike at any moment, the ordinary men and women below strive to go about their daily lives as best they can. Kenan faces the agonizing dilemma of crossing the city to get water for his family. Dragan, gripped by fear, does not know who among his friends he can trust. And Arrow, a young woman counter-sniper must push herself to the limits - of body and soul, fear and humanity. Told with immediacy, grace and harrowing emotional accuracy, The Cellist of Sarajevo shows how, when the everyday act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.

A masterful re-imagining of the lives and loves of Harry Houdini, from the author of the Richard and Judy bestseller The Cellist of Sarajevo.The whole world knows me as the man who killed Harry Houdini, the most famous person on the planet. But there is a secret that no one knows, save for myself and one other person who likely died long ago...This is the spellbinding story of Harry Houdini - his life, his loves, his feats of daring - and misfit Martin Strauss, the man who killed him with an ill-timed punch to the stomach. But in magic, nothing is quite what it seems. Is Strauss the killer of the greatest showman the world has ever seen, or is faking his own death the greatest trick Houdini ever pulled?

From the beloved, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, a beautiful, suspense-filled novel As a young Romany boy in Transylvania in the early years of the twentieth century, Salvo Usaris mother and father are killed in a tragic fire. Forced to flee his village, leaving his brother and sister behind him, Salvo embarks on a lifetimes odyssey that takes him through the dark forests of his homeland, to the bustling streets of Budapest - where he learns the skills of a wire-walker - and eventually to the United States. There he is reunited with his family, finds fame, and eventually risks everything to perform one final - death-defying - high wire act, as he walks between the twin towers of the World Trade Center...

From the beloved, award-winning, bestselling author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, a beautiful, suspense-filled novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a magical tale of intrigue, love and illusion. The Confabulist weaves together the life, loves and murder of the worlds greatest magician, Harry Houdini, with the story of the man who killed him (twice): Martin Strauss, an everyday man whose fate was tied to the magicians in unforeseen ways. A cast of memorable characters spins around Houdinis celebrity-driven life, as they did in his time: from the Romanov family soon to be assassinated, to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the powerful heads of Scotland Yard, and the Spiritualists who would use whoever they could to establish their religion. A brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe.

This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst.One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinonis Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesnt know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is Arrow, the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.

The acclaimed author of Finnie Walsh turns from small-town hockey to the extraordinary intrigues of circus life during the heyday of the Big Top through the story of Salvo Ursari, undisputed master of the high wire.As the novel opens, it is the summer of 1976. Salvo is 66 years old and has decided he can never retire. Already famous thanks to his days in an American circus, he has made a living in recent times performing solo walks of extraordinary difficulty. And so he finds himself attempting to accomplish the most difficult feat of his career: to walk a wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet from the ground.Transylvania in 1919 is a place of poverty and persecution for the Rom people. Salvo follows his father to a village church, where the senior Ursari -- the only man who volunteers for the task -- is to climb the steeple to replace a large iron crucifix that had been removed for safe-keeping during the war. He restores the cross, but it is not properly attached and as they are leaving, it falls, killing a priest. When the villagers exact their revenge, Salvos parents are killed and he is separated from his brother and sister. Thus begins nearly a lifetime of being forced to flee from suspicion and misfortune that takes the reader from Europe to the US to British Columbias Fraser Valley and back to Manhattan.Ascension combines powerful storytelling -- including stories of the Romany people, poverty-stricken but resourceful, and rich in legend -- with great surprise and originality; Steven Galloway makes it clear why he is one of the hottest young writers in Canada today.Excerpt from AscensionOnce a newspaper man had asked him what it felt like to walk high above the crowd, with death looming beneath you and success a long way off on the other platform. Salvo had told the man that it was like being a bird, an eagle, but he knew that wasnt true at all. He was a man, nothing more. Still, he was a man who dared do things other men watched and admired and were jealous of. He walked for these people as much as for anyone. But today he was walking only for himself. That was the difference with these solo walks. When he was among them, he was one of them, but here he is timeless, one man on a wire far above it all, in a separate place. He was not free, but he was as free as he would ever be.

From the author of The Cellist of Sarajevo, an exciting new novel that uses the life and sudden death of Harry Houdini to weave a tale of magic, intrigue, and illusion.What is real and what is an illusion? Can you trust your memory to provide an accurate record of what has happened in your life?The Confabulist is a clever , entertaining, and suspenseful narrative that weaves together the rise and fall of world-famous Harry Houdini with the surprising story of Martin Strauss, an unknown man whose fate seems forever tied to the magicians in a way that will ultimately startle and amaze. It is at once a vivid portrait of an alluring, late-nineteenth/early-twentieth-century world; a front-row seat to a world-class magic show; and an unexpected love story. In the end, the book is a kind of magic trick in itself: there is much more to Martin than meets the eye.Historically rich and ingeniously told, this is a novel about magic and memory, truth and illusion, and the ways that love, hope, grief, and imagination canfor better or for worsealter what we perceive and believe.

Steven Galloways first novel, an incredible coming of age story, now revised and available in trade paperback from Vintage Canada.Finnie Walsh is a captivating, Irving-esque story of family, friendship, redemption, and legend.Paul Woodward lives in Portsmouth, a quiet northern mill-town. Born the day Paul Henderson planted the puck between the pipes against the Soviet Union to win the 1972 Super Series, Paul has no choice about playing hockey. His best friend Finnie Walsh is stinking rich. He is also fellow hockey fanatic and the only good kid in a long line of delinquent brothers. Pauls father works the nightshift at the local mill, owned by Finnies father. One fateful day the boys noisily prepare for their first season of hockey in the Woodward driveway, keeping Pauls father awake when he should be sleeping. This triggers a chain of world-altering events. Galloway proves that childhood innocence, while not exactly bliss, can be amusing and more than mildly instructional. This is the book John Irving would have written if he understood hockey as well as wrestling. Finnie Walsh, like the fabled games before NHL expansion, is a story about greatness and legend. But its also a heartsong to family, friendship, and atonement.

"Una història apassionant sobre el setge de Sarajevo." J. M. CoetzeeEn una cruïlla de carrers de Sarajevo, Kenan agafa forces per emprendre la seva odissea setmanal a través de la ciutat a la recerca