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Bel Canto

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Bel Canto

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Anna Fields
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About this listen

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award • Winner of the Orange Prize • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century

""Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book."" —Washington Post Book World

New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett’s spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn to communicate across cultural barriers in times of crisis

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 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.

Patchett's lyrical prose and lucid imagination make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.

©2001 Ann Patchett; (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Suspense Thriller & Suspense Exciting Heartfelt Mind-bending Romance

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As the terrorists and the hostages gradually become real to each other as individual human beings, so they become real to us, the readers. Ann Patchett skilfully draws us into their enclosed world and shows us the human and humane qualities of both sides and the inhumane machinations of power. Full of interest and pathos. It was some time before I could bring myself to listen to the last chapter.

Bel Canto

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I enjoyed this book. It is a tragic story, but it ends with hope. The narration was good.

A powerful story

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This is the story of a hostage situation and what happens when the hostages and captors begin to see past their roles and appreciate each other as human beings. Beautifully written and narrated, the storyline was novel and unexpected. I really enjoyed it.

Unique story, beautifully narrated

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intriguing plot, characters and dynamics slowly revealing and engaging. slow pace allows mostly convincing rapprochement between captors and captives. definitely worth reading.

unusual topic and setting.. a hostage situation becomes an adult lord of the flies turned utopian.

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One of the best, if not THE best, audiobooks I’ve ever listened to, and I listen to loads of them! Simply stunning. I bought this on a whim, after it was recommended by someone, a rarity for me (I usually work my way through a meticulously curated wish list!). I’m so glad I took the risk! I’d never heard of the author, but her work is stunning. The characters were so beautifully conceived, and the story so wonderfully paced, that I was captivated and genuinely stunned into silence at the end. I wanted it to go in forever. I won’t give anything away about the story, but in brief a group of people of different nationalities are bought together in unusual circumstances, and the narrator did an incredibly job with the audiobook, taking on several different accents, without being a distraction. I can’t recommend this book enough, it’s a must-read!

Incredible. The story, the performance, the characters...

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