The Cellist of Sarajevo

Kenan

At the opening of chapter two, Kenan is making his way toward Steri Grad to get water. He is practicing any evasive tactics he can to distract him from his fear, including trying to convince himself he is merely on his way to the accounting firm where he used to work. “If he controls what he sees and thinks,” he thinks to himself, “if he forgets about the water bottles he’s carrying, he can, for the first few blocks, fool himself into thinking he’s on his way to work. Perhaps he’ll have lunch with one of his colleagues. Perhaps they’ll sit outside in Veliki Park with a coffee” (37).

Kenan is jerked back to reality by all the trash and refuse stacked everywhere around the city, not to mention the gunfire in the distance. What hurts Kenan most is looking at the ruins of Sarajevo’s National Library. It has been destroyed by fire which marks the outside of the building with soot and the huge dome that was a source of pride for the city for over a century is now shattered and lies about in shards on the ground. Kenan remembers that, before the siege, the library was the city’s “most visible manifestation of a society he was proud of” (99).