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Bel Canto

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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.

 Action & Adventure Fiction Genre Fiction Multicultural Psychological 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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I think the book worth reading, but as an audiobook I found the narration tedious and on one monotone,

maybe better to read than listen

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