Bel Canto

A Novel

by

318 pages

Published June 17, 2005 by Harper Perennial.

ISBN:
978-0-06-083872-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
61446724

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(1 review)

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots.Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.

1 edition

reviewed Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Quietly devastating

Such a well written and endearing book. No matter where you think the plot and characters will go, Patchett will delicately show you how she moves them in a completely other direction. There is something like kindness in this book, towards all her characters as well as towards the reader, an attention to detail, a way of never underestimating any of them. Yes the setting and all that follows is hardly believable, and Ann Patchett does a wonderful job at making you imagine that it is.

Subjects

  • Women singers -- Fiction.
  • Victims of terrorism -- Fiction.
  • Embassy buildings -- Fiction.
  • Hostages -- Fiction.
  • Opera -- Fiction.
  • Psychological fiction.
  • South America -- Fiction.