Bel Canto

<strong>Winner of The Women's Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.</strong>

The poignant - and at times very funny - novel from the internationally bestselling author of <em>The Dutch House</em> and <em>Commonwealth</em>.

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerised 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.