num_pages: 320
description: In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. Alas, in the opening sequence, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.Among the hostages are Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Swiss Red Cross negotiator oachim Messner comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands. Days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months. Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give.Hearing opera sung live for the first time, a young priest reflects:  Never had he thought, never once, that such a woman existed, one who stood so close to God that God's own voice poured from her. How far she must have gone inside herself to call up that voice. It was as if the voice came from the center part of the earth and by the sheer effort and diligence of her will she had pulled it up through the dirt and rock and through the floorboards of the house, up into her feet, where it pulled through her, reaching, lifting, warmed by her, and then out of the white lily of her throat and straight to God in heaven. 
language: Spanish; Castilian
title: Bel Canto
titlecomplete: Bel Canto
characters: Roxane Coss, Katsumi Hosokawa, Gen Watanabe, Carmen Lowell
genres: Book Club, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Music, Literature, Adult, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 275520
places: South America
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Book Sense Book of the Year Award
category: Paperback, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Dublin Literary Award
category: Shortlist
publisher: Océano