Product Description

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding 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.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4918 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Released on: 2005-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

Among the hostages are not only Hosokawa and Roxane Coss, the American soprano, but an assortment of Russian, Italian, and French diplomatic types. Reuben Iglesias, the diminutive and gracious vice president, quickly gets sideways of the kidnappers, who have no interest in him whatsoever. Meanwhile, a Swiss Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner is roped into service while vacationing. He comes and goes, wrangling over terms and demands, and the days stretch into weeks, the weeks into months.

With the omniscience of magic realism, Ann Patchett flits in and out of the hearts and psyches of hostage and terrorist alike, and in doing so reveals a profound, shared humanity. Her voice is suitably lyrical, melodic, full of warmth and compassion. Hearing opera sung live for the first time, a young priest reflects:

Never had he thought, never once, that such a woman existed, one who stood so close to God that God's own voice poured from her. How far she must have gone inside herself to call up that voice. It was as if the voice came from the center part of the earth and by the sheer effort and diligence of her will she had pulled it up through the dirt and rock and through the floorboards of the house, up into her feet, where it pulled through her, reaching, lifting, warmed by her, and then out of the white lily of her throat and straight to God in heaven.

Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give, even in a novel so imbued with the rich imaginative potential of magic realism. But in a fractious world, Bel Canto remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love. --Victoria Jenkins

From Library Journal
Lucky Mr. Hosokawa. The well-connected Japanese businessman, now in an unnamed South American country on yet another job, is having a very special birthday party. At the home of the country's vice president, opera singer Roxane Cos will be performing for him and his guests. But what's this? Armed men invading the premises? These ragtag revolutionaries are looking for the president and disappointed that he is not there, but that doesn't stop them from holding the party goers hostage. What happens after that was, for this reviewer, a story that failed to ignite. Patchett (The Patron Saint of Liars) generates little tension as she moves her players around the board, and one is disappointed that there is little reflection about the head-on clash of art and life. This book is getting a big promotional pitch, however, so libraries may want to consider.
- Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New Yorker
An impoverished South American country hosts a birthday extravaganza for a Japanese industrialist in the hope of securing new foreign investment. The lure? An internationally renowned lyric soprano. Indeed, when Roxane Coss sings, even the ragtag terrorists who are about to flood through the air-conditioning vents and take the guests hostage hold their breath, transported by the beauty of her voice. Patchett's tragicomic novel—a fantasia of guns and Puccini and Red Cross negotiations—invokes the glorious, unreliable promises of art, politics, and love. Against this grand backdrop, the smallest gestures bloom with meaning: a pretty governess stitching up the cheek of her employer with her sewing kit; a young terrorist discovering the tyranny of wearing a watch; an exasperated French diplomat risking his life to peel an eggplant with a proper knife.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Customer Reviews

Such a disappointing read
I am an avid reader; currently living in an unnamed South American country. I could wax poetic about the beautiful writing and character development in this book, but let's be honest. I was reading it on a nine-hour flight without another option, otherwise this book would have been passed over quickly. It took numerous attempts to even keep going. It was unrealistic, superficial and I feel the ending was disrespectful to the people who made it that far. It was unbelievable and I feel the author lost interest in the book herself and copped out. This book rates in the bottom ten of all time, personally.

Patchett Delivers Again
Wow. I don't think I've ever had an afterglow after reading a book. Just like an awesome love-making session, I just sat there afterwards, basking in the feelings that Bel Canto arose in me. "Bel Canto" literally means good singing, and Patchett certainly delivered a good read about good singing and the transformative power of art, even in settings where, on the face of things, no beauty should be found at all.

This book is a tragicomedy about a 4-month hostage experience that turns into something extraordinary. It centers around the presence of the world's most famous soprano, but other characters are far more gripping. Some characters, like the red-cross negotiator, wither under the trying circumstances. Other characters, like Gen, come into their own and continue to amaze us with his development. Patchett's strength is for developing nuanced characters.

Her other strength is carrying readers to the rhythm of the book (or should I say, the music?) I was tense in the beginning when the crisis ensued, got lulled into the same hypnotic complacency that the hostages and terrorists did in the middle of the book, then tensed up again as the plot thickens at the end. Good reads are supposed to do that, but Patchett does it exceptionally well, really tying the readers' complacency to the characters'.

Just read it. You'll be glad you did.

simply wonderful
Technically, I LISTENED to this book, narrated by Anna Fields, who did an amazing, amazing job. It got so that I could tell which character was speking before she finished a sentance; she was that good.
The story itself was moving -- happy, sad, terrifying, ridiculous -- the way any period of your life is; it isn't all one thing or the other. Patchett did a wonderful job developing the characters. I am going to miss Mr. Hosakawa.