COLD MOUNTAIN tells the story of Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier who walks away from the battlefield and travels through the devastated South to return to his sweetheart, who, in turn, has been struggling to keep the family farm going. This debut novel won the National Book Award for Fiction.

This was the year of the killer B's: The boys of the BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB got hotter than a Cuban cigar, while Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli bewitched millions with his pop album ROMANZA, which shared the limelight with British diva Sarah Brightman and her megaselling TIME TO SAY GOODBYE.