A woman's cello playing draws all of the neighborhood cats into her yard, where they wreak havoc before starting to make their own kind of music.

Steven Galloway constructs his extraordinary novel around the true story of a cellist's resistance in the midst of war-torn Sarajevo. Against this, Galloway touchingly describes three ordinary townspeople and their efforts to retain their humanity, sanity, and autonomy as war takes hold of their lives.

"As the new year approaches, best friends Ronny, whose family is in financial trouble, and Josefina, who has a big audition at a prestigious music academy, must learn how to depend on one another and their community when things get tough"--