The cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway

This short, effective book gains much of its power from the fact that neither the citizens under siege in the city (the longest siege in modern history) nor those attacking them from the hills and mountains above are identified as to their cause.  This gives it a universality.  Based on an actual occurrence in 2006, the novel follows three people, a father who has to leave the dubious safety of his home every few days to fetch water from the only remaining source, an older man who has sent his family to safety out of the city, and a young woman whose skills in marksmanship have been coopted by the army.  And the cellist, who after seeing 22 people waiting in line for bread beneath his window killed in an bomb attack, each day thereafter for 22 days goes down to the bomb site, dressed in his orchestra clothes, and plays Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor.  Haunting and unforgettable, as is the photo that inspired it. [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ARaOfkEfYOA/Uq-UX7sRbUI/AAAAAAAAUKw/8q2PKqjZbDY/s1600/cellist-of-sarajevo-vedran-smailovic-playing-in-partially-destroyed-national-library-1992-photo-by-mikail-eustafiev-theflyingtortoise.jpg]. 235 pp.