The Cellist of Sarajevo

by Steven Galloway

But perhaps the only thing that will stop it from getting worse is people doing the things they know how to do.

Dragan never understood, even before the war began, why they thought people like him were such a threat. He still doesn’t understand what killing him would accomplish, what effect it would have on anyone but him.

He will behave now as he hopes everyone will someday behave. Because civilization isn’t a thing that you build and then there it is, you have it forever. It needs to be built constantly, re-created daily. It vanishes far more quickly than he ever would have thought possible. And if he wishes to live, he must do what he can to prevent the world he wants to live in from fading away. As long as there’s war, life is a preventative measure.

The music demanded that she remember this, that she know to a certainty that the world still held the capacity for goodness. The notes were proof of that.