1. Montero based her novel on an actual event: the bombing of a Cuban opera house and Caruso's subsequent disappearance for several days. How does she incorporate the facts into her fiction? Does her use of testimony and journalism affect the way you perceive Aida's and Caruso's stories?

2. One of the characters in the novel, the doctor who treated Caruso before he returned to New York, compares destiny to the libretto of an opera. "For those who believe in destiny," he says, "things happened as they had to happen. Caruso couldn't escape the libretto; he couldn't skip a line. Fatality is the only opera we never have to study: we're born knowing it by heart." What does this novel say about fate? Is a belief in destiny paralyzing or liberating?

3. Montero introduces a variety of cultures in her novel -- Indian, African, Chinese, European; Enriqueta Cheng's heritage includes each of these ethnic groups. How does her character embody their influences, similarities and differences?

4. Although the novel's events occur primarily around 1920, Montero starts and ends the novel in present day Havana. How has life in the city changed over the past seventy years? How does the older Enriqueta's way of life reflect these changes?