This book was incredible. I started it in the summer, and it has taken me ages to finish. But I’m so glad I read it. A famed opera singer travels to a South American country to perform for the private birthday celebration of a Japanese businessman with interests there. When terrorists take over the party at the Vice President’s house, a months-long hostage situation begins.

The situation begins with fear and desperation, but as the story unfolds we learn so much about the prisoners and their captors. Bonds form, and some of them even fall in love. Opera ties them all together, as does language. The details of their day-to-day lives, and their lives before, become so absorbing that by the time I reached the shocking end I was in tears. A sense of impending doom and finality is always present in the house (how can these relationships last after?), but the relationships formed and the possibilities for the future make the ending just heartbreaking. A really wonderful book, truly.