num_pages: 318
description: Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening—until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.
language: English
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: Harper Perennial