Steven Galloway’s The Cellist of Sarajevo has been selected as the Toronto Public Library’s One Book community read for 2014. The stirring novel, originally published in 2008, tells the story of three civilians trying to survive the bloody siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, and the cellist who makes the dangerous decision to play Albinoni’s Adagio each day for 22 days as a way of honouring the victims of a bakery bombing. Book lovers are encouraged to pick up a copy and read it ahead of the annual Keep Toronto Reading Festival in April. The book will be discussed at various events across the city over the course of the festival. In a conversation with Cityline.ca, Galloway explained that he began writing the book in 2003 in response to the post-9/11 debate about the merits of war. “What really bothered me at the time about the large discussion that was taking place was [the focus on] whether people were for the war or against the war or the idea of war. Not much of the conversation was about how, in contemporary warfare, 90-95% of all casualties are civilian,” he notes. “They’re not soldiers, they’re butchers, bakers, schoolteachers, housewives, the retired, the young. That just wasn’t part of what we were talking about. We weren’t saying, ‘To get rid of these bad guys, is it worth killing 10 innocent people for every one bad person?’ That stuck in my craw.” The book’s titular cellist is inspired by a real life musician who played his instrument amid the destruction during the siege, but the story itself focuses on three individuals in the city who are in one way or another affected by his actions. “When you look at that image [of the cellist playing], there’s a spectrum of possible reactions. On one end of the spectrum, there’s [the view that] this guy’s an idiot. He’s going to get shot. It’s a stupid and melodramatic, grandiose thing to do,” Galloway says. “On the other end of the spectrum, [there’s the view that] this is one of the most poignant and moving expressions of humanity that I’ve ever seen. And then a range of possible variations in between those two poles. What you can’t do, I don’t think, is look at that image and ‘nothing’ it. “To me the question of the book is: How will the struggles these three fictional characters are already having be influenced, or not influenced, by this image?” Galloway’s latest novel, The Confabulist, will be published in April. In it, the author sets his sights on legendary magician Harry Houdini and the cast of intriguing characters in his life. It’s a change of pace from Cellist, but Galloway – who teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia – says it’s important to push the limits of your craft. “The best advice I was given as a young writer was not to be afraid of failure. If you just keep doing what you’re good at, and don’t do the things you suspect you’re not good at, you kind of stagnate as a writer. You run out of stories you can tell, and you don’t get better,” he says. “What I try to get my students to do is figure out what it is [they] can do, and then try to add something that [they] can’t do into it. If you fail, no one gets hurt. It’s writing.” The Keep Toronto Reading Festival runs from April 1-30 at venues across the city. For more information, visit www.keeptorontoreading.ca.

We hope you're reading along with the Cityline Book Club and enjoying The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton! Our Cityline team has been enjoying this beautifully written novel, and we can't wait to discuss it in our upcoming book club meeting! To help our book club get some additional insight into Payton as a writer, we asked him 10 questions about his writing habits and favourite books. 1. What was your favourite book as a child? Honestly, I can’t remember much of what I read as a child, beyond the Hardy Boys mysteries, ghost-written by authors collectively known as Franklin W. Dixon. Then, as now, I loved being read to. I remember being mesmerized by my stunningly beautiful third grade teacher, who read E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web to the class. I was hooked on every word. 2. What’s your current favourite book? I alternate between fiction and non-fiction and often find myself reading both simultaneously. Currently, I have three books on the go — each is excellent for vastly different reasons. Right now, my wife is reading Unconditional Parenting by Alphie Kohn aloud to me, because we have two children under the age of two and I am unconditionally confused. I am reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, for the relentlessly inventive language and fascinating historical period, and The Once and Future World by J.B. MacKinnon for a deep look at the nature of nature, and the possibilities of "rewilding" our world. 3. Was there a moment when you first knew you wanted to be a writer? I read Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath when I was 14, and it shook me to the core. I vividly remember savouring the final scene while on the road, curled up in the hatchback of our Ford Pinto (infamous for having its gas tank behind the bumper) because there were not enough seats for all us kids. By the time I reached the ending, I was sobbing loud enough to require explanation. I knew then that I had magic in my hands and wanted to become a magician. 4. What is your favourite music to write to? I listened to plenty of 1940s popular music — jazz, swing — as a warm up to writing several scenes in The Wind Is Not a River. And I remember listening to Gregorian chant each day while writing my first novel Hail Mary Corner. When I’m actually writing, however, I can’t listen to music. I listen to “light” classical piano concertos when I’m editing. Can’t have anything with lyrics, horns, or snare drums. To help focus on the possibilities of language, I often read poetry before I write. While writing The Wind Is Not a River, I read Seamus Heaney’s collection Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996. 5. What author do you wish you could write like? I find coveting someone else’s style counterproductive. After all, the whole point is to find, define, and be true to your own voice. And I’m too easily influenced to give this too much thought! That said, I’ve admired the writing of John Steinbeck, Frank McCourt, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Roddy Doyle, and Ian McEwan, for example. I don’t think I write like any of them. 6. Where is your favourite place to write? Anywhere my two beautiful daughters (eldest aged 2 years, youngest 6 months) are not likely to find me or be heard through my earplugs. As you can imagine, I’m happily distracted at the moment and I’m not doing much new writing just now. I have an office across the street that I hope to visit next month, a place I think of as “The No Cry Zone.” 7. What time of day do you do your best writing? Mid-morning and mid-afternoon. My ideal writing day involves an early start, real work in the two hours before lunch, a break for a run around Vancouver’s Seawall, then back up to speed mid-afternoon. Then I lose all steam. I can’t write at night and marvel at the rumors of writers who pound away on the keyboard until dawn. Who are these people? 8. What was your last great read? Hans Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone. 9. What is the last book you gave as a gift? Choosing what to read is such a personal decision that I almost never give books. I give bookstore gift certificates to most everyone on my list to give them the freedom to choose. That said, I have given away a stack of Edward Hoagland’s Notes From the Century Before to people interested in British Columbia. It deserves a much wider audience. 10. What do you do when you’re not writing? Spend every possible moment with my little girls and their mother. I’m a new dad and I still can’t get over my great good fortune. That, and running. I will run any chance I get. Are you enjoying The Wind is Not a River so far? Share your thoughts in the comments – we can’t wait to discuss it with you. Stay tuned for a video of Brian Payton reading an excerpt from the novel, coming up right here in the Cityline Book Club next week!

Since we're a big group of book lovers here at Cityline, we're inviting our viewers to read along with us! For our last book club pick, we read the fun, quirky, and heart-warming Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant (Random House Canada) - did you read it, too? Be sure to watch the video of our book club meeting to see what we thought of the book, and to enter for your chance to win a book prize pack courtesy of Random House Canada! For our latest book pick, we'll be keeping warm with The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton (HarperCollins Canada). Once again, we hope you'll read along with us! Here's a little bit about the book:

Following the loss of his brother to the war in Europe, Canadian writer John Easley feels duty-bound to report the story that seems to have fallen into his lap: the 1943 Japanese occupation of the U.S. Aleutian Islands and the Allied attempts to drive the Japanese forces back into the sea. But when his plane is shot down over the island of Attu, he is exposed to the full fury of a wilderness known as "the Birthplace of Winds." He soon discovers that the island's indigenous residents (U.S. citizens) have all disappeared and that he has one choice: surrender or face starvation and madness alone. Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away in Seattle, Helen Easley will not sit idly by. She invents a new identity, one designed to take her from the safety of her childhood home to the war in the North Pacific. There, Helen believes, she will find her husband and reclaim their love-if only her determination can overcome their fate. So begins this moving and spellbinding portrait of lives forever altered by one of the least-known battles of World War II, the only one fought on American soil.

We're so excited to start reading this tale of survival and love, and we hope you'll read along with us! Want a copy? We have 5 copies to give away to some lucky readers, courtesy of HarperCollins Canada! To enter for your chance to win, tell us about your last great read in the comments below! Over the next six weeks, we'll be sharing tons of great features about The Wind is Not a River and Brian Payton, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at our office discussion of the book! So go out and grab your copy, and get reading! We can't wait to discuss with you!

Have you been reading along with the Cityline Book Club? Here at the studio, we had a really fun discussion about our latest book pick, the quirky and heart-warming Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant! Want to know what we thought of the novel? Wondering who Mairlyn Smith wants to cast in the role of Audrey in a movie version of the book? Take a look at the video of our meeting below: [embed]bcid:3147458478001[/embed] If you read Come, Thou Tortoise along with us, we want to know what you thought of the novel! Post a comment below with your thoughts on the book, and you’ll be entered to win a book prize pack courtesy of Random House Canada! For our next book club pick, we'll be reading The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton (HarperCollins Canada), and once again, we want you to read along with us! For more information on our latest pick, and for your chance to win a copy, click here. Set design by Amber-Rose Sandu

Have you been reading along with the Cityline Book Club? One of the things we love the most about Jessica Grant's Come, Thou Tortoise is her fantastic use of word play. From Audrey being called Oddly, to her dad being in a coma (or is that a comma?), Grant's use of language continually surprises and delights us. If you also love a good turn of phrase, check out these four clever novels: Mark Dunn, Ella Minnow Pea: How would you communicate if you were banned from using certain letters of the alphabet? On the fictional island of Nollop (named after Nevin Nollop, author of the pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."), little Ella enters into a fight for freedom of expression when the government begins to ban the use of certain letters as they fall from a memorial statue of Nollop. As the letters continue to drop from the statue, they simultaneously disappear from the novel. The result is just as weird, hilarious, and clever as you'd expect. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland: If you haven't read Alice in Wonderland since you were a child, it's time for a re-read. Carroll's Wonderland is filled with zany characters, many of whom employ clever and wacky word play, from the Caterpillar to the Cheshire Cat. You'll definitely appreciate it even more as an adult. David Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary: Told entirely through a series of dictionary entries, this modern love story is abstract, quirky, and so incredibly charming. The reader only receives brief windows into this romantic relationship, but it's so interesting to see these small glimpses through the lens of different words. Levithan's conceit is unique, and he completely pulls it off. Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair: Book nerds will love all the literary references in the first book in this popular series. As special detective in the literary detection department, Thursday Next is tasked with tracking down Jane Eyre after she suddenly disappears from the pages of her titular novel. Who is committing criminal literary acts? Thursday will have a wacky set of adventures on her way to finding out. Do you love a good turn of phrase and a clever play on words? We'd love to hear about your favourite witty reads, word nerds! Tell us about them in the comments below!