<p><strong>Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • Winner of the Orange Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist</strong></p><p><strong>"<em>Bel Canto</em> is its own universe. A marvel of a book." —<em>Washington Post Book World</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>New York Times</em> bestselling author Ann Patchett’s spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn to communicate across cultural barriers in times of crisis</strong></p><p>Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country&apos;s vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera&apos;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.</p><p>Patchett&apos;s lyrical prose and lucid imagination make <em>Bel Canto </em>a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.</p>