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.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2975 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Released on: 2005-08-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
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
Opera and terrorism make strange bedfellows, yet in this novel they complement each other nicely. At a birthday party for Japanese industrialist Mr. Hosokawa somewhere in South America, famous American soprano Roxanne Coss is just finishing her recital in the Vice President's home when armed terrorists appear, intending to take the President hostage. However, he is not there, so instead they hold the international businesspeople and diplomats at the party, releasing all the women except Roxanne. Captors and their prisoners settle into a strange domesticity, with the opera diva captivating them all as she does her daily practicing. Soon romantic liaisons develop with the hopeless intensity found in many opera plots. Patchett (The Patron Saint of Liars) balances terrorism, love, and music nicely here. Anna Fields has a pleasant voice and reads clearly, although she doesn't differentiate among the characters especially well. The tape quality is excellent. Recommended for large public libraries. Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
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

---

Customer Reviews

Bellissimo
Bel Canto is a lyrical book about relationships and power and language and opera.

Set in an unknown South American country, a Japanese industrialist is there to celebrate his birthday, lured but the chance to hear a world renown opera singer sing just for his gathering. When the terrorists come to kidnap the President, and learn that the President did not come, the story commences.

It's not strong on plot, but it does have beautiful descriptions and it was a lovely world to spend time in. I particularly liked the priest and his insights, and also how the various leaders were stymied by not having a common language, which made the one translator Gen, a man who would not otherwise put himself forward, a central character. My only quibble is that the ending, after such meandering, is too abrupt. I would have liked a different epilogue - either one with more detail or with a different resolution, but I did like the book very much. It's a keeper.

Makes me want to go and listen to Opera!
I have been coming across Bel Canto for several years, either here at Amazon or through my local bookstore - and i always passed it because the story didn't appeal to me, i didn't want to read about terrorists taking over hostages in a house, but finally i caved in and bought the book. I read it in a few days. I loved it. It's about love and beauty and music - oh the music in this book makes you want to listen to Opera and classical music, just so you can capture the essence of what the writer is describing. If you are looking for something different to read, this is the book for you.

Beautiful Writing, Captivating Story
I loved this book. I didn't think I would though. I had to read it for a group book read and the topic, hostages, did not appeal to me. But this book is not about hostages at all. It's about who or what you would be if you were taken out of your present role and set free to revision yourself. The writing is beautiful, and Patchett's insights are spot on. I didn't want it to end.