Captured Heart

My novel begins one snowy evening in cold snowy Buffalo on a typical American street where a light from the topmost room of an otherwise ordinary home shines into the wintry night with a rare golden glimmer and the miracle of invincible youth. From the garret room in this house young Elan Duclair shares with the silent falling snowflakes a voice destined to carry him from his untutored singing in a church choir and a high school rock band onto the grandest of the world's opera stages in only a few short years. He journeys through the world of early 1960's New York, making his way past older temptresses, despotic bosses, unreliable landlords, months of city cab driving, waitering, catering, and dishwashing, selling on Wall Street and a graveyard shift in an ice cream factory where the ten degrees Nordic temperature temporarily damages his vocal cords. Inspired by the pure brilliance of his musical gift, an array of opera coaches and mentors offer friendly guidance and a beautiful young musician offers her heart.