Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto

by Ann Patchett

Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The poignant – and at times very funny – novel from the author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth.

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.

Reviewed by jamiereadthis on

4 of 5 stars

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This book is very nearly, exquisitely perfect. I don't know when I've been so smitten with a book and all of its people. "How had he come to want to save all of them? The people who followed him around with loaded guns. How had he fallen in love with so many people?" Gen asks himself, and so it is.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 1 April, 2009: Finished reading
  • 1 April, 2009: Reviewed