Point of View

Galloway’s novel is written in the third person, following the perspectives of four protagonists closely. The cellist, Arrow, Kenan, and Dragan’s intimate thoughts and interpretations of war time are relayed with a distance at once strategic and emotionally powerful. By employing a third person narration over a first, readers are given a window into the hypocrisies and complications that each character demonstrates without awareness. The emotional power of this phenomenon manifests in a special irony: though readers may see the flaws and tensions in a protagonist’s worldview, the character remains deeply unaware of their limited perspective until designated moments of confrontation. For example, throughout Dragan’s encounter with Emina, readers quickly infer that Emina’s love of life is a challenge to Dragan’s unarticulated but obvious contempt for life. When Dragan is finally made to confront the power of Emina’s...