Steven Galloway

Galloway's debut novel, Finnie Walsh (2000), was nominated for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was described as "a work about the love of hockey and the way two boys form a bond that carries them through life's tragedies and trials".[16] Galloway was recognized for successfully portraying a child's perspective without "giving a child an adult's perspective".[17] The ethnic and economic diversity of the characters had critics describing it as a "truly Canadian book both in content and sensibility".[17] It was noted that "The style of Galloway's early literary influences, Farley Mowat and John Irving, is apparent"[16] in this first novel.

His second novel, Ascension (2003), was nominated for the BC Book Prizes' Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has been translated into over fifteen languages. Notably different from his first novel, Ascension takes a look at the events in the life of a 66-year-old Romanian man leading up to his famous tight rope walking between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. "He expertly walks a very fine line, spinning the makings of what might have been a gimmicky immigrant tale into a gripping story of one man's lifelong balancing act."[18]

Galloway's third novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008), was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize[19] and won the 2009 Evergreen Award, the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature[20] and the Borders Original Voices Award.[21] It was heralded as "the work of an expert" by The Guardian,[22] and has become an international bestseller with rights sold in over 30 countries.

The novel is set during the siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s and explores the dilemmas of ordinary people caught in the crisis.[1] The title references the true story of Vedran Smailović, a cellist who played Albinoni's Adagio "dressed in evening tails and perching on a fire-scorched chair" every day for 22 days, "always at the same location", to "honour the 22 people killed by a mortar bomb while they queued for bread at 10 in the morning on May 26, 1992".[23] The novel follows the lives of three fictional citizens of Sarajevo as they struggle to survive the war, including one who seeks to protect the cellist: "He has said he will do this for twenty-two days. This is the eighth. People see him. The world has seen him. We cannot allow him to be killed." The novel examines the gentleness found in humanity and the lasting and healing power of art.

Vedran Smailović did not learn of the book until after it had been published. Galloway had been advised to contact Smajlović, who had purposefully embraced a quiet, private life in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, but did not do so.[23] When Smailović learned of the publication, he expressed feelings of indignation and dismay, objecting to the use of his story and his personal information without permission or compensation,[24] and pointing out differences between the story and his actual life.[23] However, a meeting between the two took place in 2012, moving a step closer to conflict resolution.[25]

Galloway, who has been described as "honest and talented young man with no intentions to steal",[25] claimed that Smailović's act of playing the cello as a protest was a public act,[23] and that fiction writers were under no obligation to pay those who inspired them, and that it was unreasonable to expect that.[23] Galloway insisted that the cellist in his story, while inspired by the photos and story of Smailović, was imaginary.[26] Galloway sent the cellist a signed copy of the book.

The Confabulist is a story told some time after 2010 by an elderly man named Martin Strauss who claims to have killed Harry Houdini.[27] Mostly employing flashbacks, the novel alternates between Houdini's point of view and Strauss's point of view to describe the years leading up to their 1926 encounter in Montreal. Several aspects are historically accurate including attempts to have Houdini join espionage circles, and his efforts to champion skepticism over spiritualism. However, it gradually becomes clear that Strauss is an unreliable narrator. The Confabulist was shortlisted for The Rogers Trust Fiction Prize and received favourable reviews from Marcia Kaye of The Toronto Star and Keith Donohue of The Washington Post.[28][29] In the National Post, Zoe Whittall said "But this is Steven Galloway we’re talking about — a brilliant Vancouver novelist, and the author of The Cellist of Sarajevo — and I believe that, no matter the setting or conceit, a good novelist can make anything worth your while. And Galloway is nothing if not a good novelist. I’m happy to report that The Confabulist, his fourth novel, is a stunning achievement." [30] Conversely, Jenny Hendrix of the New York Times criticized the narrative as heavy handed.[31]