Bel Canto

By Ann Patchett

Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The poignant – and at times very funny – novel from the author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth.

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerised 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Feb 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9780007381791

Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.

Reviews for Bel Canto

[sean191 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While there were many beautiful passages throughout Bel Canto, it did drag too long - I suppose in a way, like the hostages' captivity, but I don't think that was intentionally reflecting their ordeal. The ending, while making sense in a way, seemed too forced. Still, I can understand why many love this book.

[janepat-619237 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my all-time favorite books because of the plot, the setting, the struggle, the writing. It's intriguing and it moves along. My favorite Ann Patchett book. I don't like all of hers, but this one is a WINNER.

[avanders_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful wonderful wonderful. The author does a magnificent job with characterization and a fictional retelling of an event (the hostage crisis in Peru in the late 90s). I highly recommend this book.

[charlotteburt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you have ever wondered about Stockholm syndrome and how it could play out then this book is a good example. Told in the third person with an ensemble cast where a hostage situation in an unnamed country goes on for months. Like a watching train wreck in slow motion. Some wonderful characters. As one of the protagonists is a celebrated operatic soprano music also plays a large part of this book. Not quite five stars for me as the shifting POV meant that I never felt a strong emotional attachment to any of the characters but a really good read.

[starkravingmad_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Ponderous - Could not finish

[drfuriosa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am well and truly crushed by this beautiful and devastating book. Ann Patchett weaves an improbable world and turns isolation and the mundane into extraordinary beauty.

[carriewuj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My fave of all Ann Patchett's books. Great scenario with suspense and compassion and a good look at Stockholm Syndrome concept.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In an unnamed South American country, a very wealthy Japanese industrialist is feted on his birthday. No expense is spared; the world’s most famous opera singer is the entertainment. The guest list is packed with the world’s rich and famous, all wondering if the Japanese will invest in this country. The only person missing is the president of the country – he decided to stay home and watch his nightly soap opera instead.A group of twenty terrorists/freedom fighters break into the party held at the Vice President’s house and take the two hundred guests hostage. Their plan is to trade the President for their comprades in prison. But the president isn’t there and the terrorists don’t seem to have another plan.As the days wear on, we not only see the humanity but also come to care about members in both the hostage and the terrorist groups. And they also begin to care about each other as friendship and romance bloom in unexpected places.Of course, it can’t go on forever. The ending was both better and worse than I expected with an unforeseen, almost jarring, twist in the epilogue.Although I was surprised that the terrorists didn’t realize the value of their other hostages as political trade, I would highly recommend this book. Humanity, humor, desperation, romance, friendship, despair and healing.

[highlander6022 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very engrossing - an excellent read.

[alexrichman_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ideal lockdown reading - a novel about a hostage crisis! Given the nature of the story - an ensemble piece - the characters are all a bit too straightforward. It's still an enjoyable page-turner, but feels every so slightly slight.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bel Canto is one of those novels that is good on so many levels, it's taken me hours after finishing it to put my thoughts about the story and the characters into words. This work is as lyrical and dramatic as any opera, and the word "brilliant" isn't excessive to describe the talent of author, Ann Patchett. I wondered how she came up with such a remarkable and unique story, but then learned she'd been influenced by actual events involving a hostage situation in Peru. Patchett goes far beyond the headlines and enters the minds of the players on both sides. It's a fascinating story and a rewarding and entertaining character study.

While immersed in this novel, one would start to develop a relationship with these kids-who-are-terrorists, (yes, they were basically children) and start to feel that this is what your life has become. And so it goes in Bel Canto; these characters - hostages and terrorists alike, are introduced systematically throughout the beginning of the ordeal and Patchett does a good job of fleshing them out and getting us attached - to a point. I think that this is one of those books where your opinion of it will vary depending on where you are in your life. I can see this book leaving different impressions on someone who maybe has just found new love and someone who is jaded by relationships. Moreover, I think that this could determine just how much you liked this book, as well.

Ann Patchett writes a story of a lavish birthday party in a small South American country gone wrong. A group of gun-wielding terrorists interrupt a party for a Japanese businessman (at the residence of the Vice President), hoping to take the president hostage and be on their way. But the President is home watching his favorite soap opera, can you believe it? The terrorists make a quick decision to take the multi-national group of party guests hostage, most notably opera star, Roxane Coss, the party honoree, Mr. Hosokawa, his translator, Gen, the country’s Vice President, a local priest, and many others.

I like character-based stories, especially when they are exceptionally well written. I enjoyed seeing how the hostages and the terrorists interacted over a period of months, especially with music as the central theme. I found it quite interesting to watch how relationships developed and blossomed between members of the eclectic group of people who found themselves living together in the vice presidential residence. The multiplicity of these stories is key to Bel Canto and its ensemble cast. Although Patchett focuses on a small core of characters, even her most minor characters have a detailed, comprehensive backstory that provides their motivation. None of Patchett’s characters are stock, because she can always justify who they are. Normally this would be overwhelming, but the timeless, ambling quality of the narrative allow Patchett this type of freedom in her characterization.

This is my kind of book as I’m a true people watcher. I can appreciate why it might not be for everyone, especially those preferring more action than interaction, but for me it was a beautiful story with some very tense, poignant and engaging moments. The prose is lyrical without feeling like it’s overdone. The emphasis on description over dialogue may annoy some, but I gradually allowed myself to become seduced by this, and the way Patchett would dip in and out of each character’s thoughts, sharing along the way some of their background story.

For you see, Bel Canto exists in that fringe space of absurd that straddles reality and fiction. On the one hand, it seems so implausible that a group of terrorists this incompetent could show up at a party to kidnap a president who isn’t there and wind up babysitting hostages for four months. On the other hand, situations this long have happened before. In REAL life! In this case, however, the combination of the terrorists’ abject failure to get what they want and the duration of the standoff contributes to a kind of mutual Stockholm syndrome. While the distinction between terrorist and hostage never disappears, the barriers to civility do, and gradually the Vice President’s house becomes a kind of community of unhappy circumstance. All the while the reader is taken along for the ride, knowing that this beautiful peace will not last; indeed CANnot last, but we rush through to the end regardless.

It’s a bit like a lab experiment. Patchett puts these people under the microscope in a controlled environment and watches them react. Because all of the characters have different ways of coping with their isolation, with the separation from their loved ones, with the sense of dread accompanying the knowledge that this can’t go on forever. Indeed, like many once-in-a-lifetime events, the standoff is a cathartic and life-changing experience for those involved. Mr. Hosokawa enters the house as a lover of opera—it is his passion to the exclusion of almost all other pleasures, including those of his family, who perplex and bewilder him more than they do provide warmth and companionship. Gen enters as an employee of Mr. Hosokawa, nothing more, but he gradually discovers within himself a capacity and ambition he had not recognized before. Vice President Iglesias undergoes perhaps one of the more interesting transformations, for he decides his role as host continues and begins obsessively tidying the house and cleaning up after people. In a situation where he is powerless to change their circumstances, he seizes upon what little power he has to make things better.

Strangely enough, however, Patchett captures the nature of this transformation best when describing a fairly minor character. Tetsuya Kato is one of Mr. Hosokowa’s corporate vice presidents and accompanied him to the party. When Roxanne Coss decides she must begin practising again, we learn that Kato can play the piano—he can, in fact, play it beautifully. At first this revelation is a convenient plot point and emphasizes one of the book’s themes, which is that people are full of surprises and have all these hidden talents we don’t know about because we don’t necessarily ask. But there’s something deeper going on here. The hostage situation prompts a profound crisis of identity in these people, and they find themselves not just stepping from their comfort zone but leaving it behind entirely. But Patchett makes it happen so fluidly and so beautifully that it feels natural. The hostage situation in Bel Canto reminds me of this subtle transformation.

I know for some people, Patchett’s decision to use opera as a metaphorical way to unify the story detracted from their enjoyment of it. However, Patchett is doing more than talking about opera. That’s how it starts, but pretty soon the metaphor extends into music in general. Patchett reifies the spiritual reverence we as humans accord to the experience of music. When Roxanne sings, she literally stops the terrorists in their tracks, momentarily making them hostages to her voice. I may not have listened to much opera, but I understand the power of the human voice. It’s in the orator whose speech sways the crowds not just because of the words but the way they’re spoken. In a medium with no sound, Patchett harnesses something primal about our sense of hearing and asks one to listen.

In case it’s not clear, I’ve fallen for Bel Canto. It’s beautiful as a work of literature. It’s beautiful as a reading experience. I’ve fallen for it so hard that it’s difficult for me to evaluate it critically, because honestly, I just want to close my eyes and bask in Patchett’s luxurious narration of everyone’s thoughts and desires.

And then there’s the ending. [spoiler alert]

It’s not a stretch to say I felt betrayed by the ending, at least in the first few seconds of seeing the scene play out on the page. To be fair, Patchett foreshadows the hell out of this thing, reminding us that despite what some of the characters might hope, nothing can last forever. Except that, thanks to the way Patchett writes, this situation seems like it could defy such a truism. The story has a quality of timelessness to it. Yet something, as they say, has to give. I understand that, but I was so invested in these characters that I wanted them to get out alive. Not all of them, mind you—I didn’t care what happened to the Generals, not even Benjamin. But to see Hosokawa and Carmen brutally cut down like that … that hurt. I wanted a happy ending for Carmen and Gen so badly. But given the scenario, you can't really expect a happy ending, can you....? :(

I don’t feel cheated though. As I said, the ending makes sense given the story Patchett has written. The characters who survive are changed, their paths in life altered, even warped unrecognizably by their experience. They have a new perspective on what it means to live. Fortunately, I don’t have to endure four months of being hostage for such transformation, or even a few weeks tied up in someone's basement … I just have to read books like Bel Canto.

[pdcread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was supposed to be an important gathering, a Japanese businessman has joined the great and the good in the vice-presidents home in a small Latin American country to be persuaded to invest in a factory in their country. The president has called off, preferring to sit at home and watch his favourite soap opera. Mr Hosokawa was wary about attending, but when he heard that his favourite opera singer, Roxanne Coss, had been booked to sing to the private gathering, he decided to attend.

After she had finished singing, there is a pause and the house is suddenly full of men with guns, who were there to kidnap the president. When they find he is missing there are incredulous and angry, almost not believing them and thinking he is hidden amongst the people there. As the tension mounts, a hostage dies and the partygoers realise that it is not a game anymore. A day or so later there is a knock at the front door, the soldiers open it and on the other side is a Swiss guy who was supposed to be on holiday, is there on behalf of the Red Cross to begin negotiations. A list of demands is drawn up and he is sent off with them.

The government is not wanting to negotiate unless some of the hostages are released, and the women and children a few others are let out, but they soldiers decide to keep the opera singer, and life in the house settles down into an awkward routine. A chess board if found and Coss decides that she needs to practice her singing to keep her voice in check and it turns out one of the guests is an accomplished piano player; slowly the authority of the Generals and their soldiers begins to ebb away.

This is an interesting take on the usual action-packed hostage trope, Patchett has let the sluggish responses of a government feed into the characters in the home as people on opposite sides start to talk, develop relationships and try to act like this is actually normal life. It isn't but even then, love manages to flourish even under the most trying of circumstances. If I had one quibble, I thought that the epilogue was a little unnecessary as a way of tying things up, otherwise a really enjoyable read.

[sandrabrower · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh, Ann Patchett how you broke my heart at the end of Bel Canto. I should have remembered that the meaning of Bel Canto in Italian is "beautiful Singing," but has many other definitions. Some of which describe how the book progressed:

*an impeccable legato production throughout the singer's (seamless)
range

*the use of a light tone in the higher registers

*an agile, flexible technique capable of dispatching ornate
embellishments

*the ability to execute fast, accurate divisions

*the avoidance of aspirates and eschewing a loose vibrato

*a pleasing, well-focused timbre

*a clean attack

*limpid diction

*graceful phrasing rooted in a complete mastery of breath control.

So why was I surprised? Read it for yourself. Such a wonderful and humanistic book.

[maneekuhi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

READING BEL CANTO A SECOND TIMEI first read the 318 page “Bel Canto” (BC) by Ann Patchett about ten years ago. I loved it, rated it a 5. Because of BC I developed a crush on opera – I bought a number of CDs and I went to live Met broadcasts aired at select movie theaters around the country. Recently, I’ve been a bit bored with what I’ve been reading and decided to read some of my old favorites. BC is probably the 4th re-read I’ve done this year; the experience has been less than what I expected. Generally, I’ve found the stories to be between good and very good but not as super as I had remembered, BC included.BC has an excellent plot and the story is modeled after a true event that occurred in South America a number of years ago. Armed rebels take over the home of the unidentified country’s Vice-President, expecting to capture and hold hostage an invited guest, the President. But he is a last minute cancelation. Instead, the band of very young soldiers, including two girls, have captured some foreign dignitaries and executives as well as Roxane Coss, perhaps the world’s foremost diva. The rebels make demands of the government, the government refuses and a 4 ½ month stalemate ensues. Relationships develop. And then a bloody climax.But it is not the climax that stuns the reader most; instead it is a four to five page epilogue that leaves many of us scratching our heads, wondering why, what does this mean, did I miss the whole point here, etc. etc.There are some very nice scenes throughout the book, very sweet, very romantic, but they just didn’t have the same impact on reading BC a second time. I read a couple of other stories by Patchett after my first reading of BC but they didn’t come close to moving me the same way. Unfortunately, neither does a second reading of the book – and I am no closer to an understanding of the epilogue than I was ten years ago. Maybe rereads isn’t such a great idea.

[gracefulphoton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating read. I struggled at times with what I thought were shallow characters, but I revelled in the book's interest in collective experience (as opposed to individual experience). It feels that the book doesn't rely too much on plot, but rather explores the barriers of language and the transcendent (and translingual) experience of music. At the best of times I felt like I was reading a hybrid of Proust and "The Magic Mountain," but at other times I felt that the collective appreciation of music and the inability to communicate otherwise stretched the bounds of credulity. Still, very enjoyable and interesting.

[chrisblocker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel is as lyrical, engaging, and wonderfully charactered as you've heard. The epilogue is also as terrible as you've heard. (You have my permission to skip it.)I have nothing to add, other than I would've loved to have seen more internal strife within the group and within the characters than we were provided after the initial set up. Some complacency is expected, but I thought this was a bit too relaxed.

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was the coziest hostage taking story ever. It was odd, but was charming in its exploration of music and love in a desperate situation.

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 starsIn South America (Peru?), there is a birthday party with lots of rich people. The president of the country was supposed to have been there. An American opera singer is there. The party is stormed by guerrillas, and all the people are taken hostage. They were really looking for the president, but he backed out at the last minute and wasn’t there, so they made do with the rest of the people. The hostage situation went on for months… It was pretty slow-moving, but the story was good. Unfortunately, I found I (mostly) didn’t care about the characters. I guess by the end, I did a little bit, but still not as much as I would have hoped. The epilogue was unexpected – I’m not sure I liked it. My edition had an interview with the author at the end, so I found it interesting to discover that the book was based on a real-life hostage situation at the Japanese embassy in Peru that did last months.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Perfectly lovely tale, patiently told, even if the ending was a little rushed. It takes place in some undefined country, but it seems undefined in other ways too.

It went on perhaps 50 pages longer than it needed, but there was enough magic to justify the raves I have read about this book over the past decade or more.

[thiscatsabroad · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loosely based on the 1996 attacks on the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru by the MRTA, Bel Canto bewitched me. Essentially set in 1 room - like an opera set - this "hostage taking gone wrong" effortlessly manages to keep your interest piqued through all if its 300-some pages.

[foggidawn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A group of dignitaries are brought together in an unnamed South American country for a special occasion: a party at the Vice-President's mansion. Just at the end of the performance by world-renowned opera singer Roxane Coss, the lights go out, and a group of terrorists swarm through the building. They came to capture the President, but he is not at the party -- he stayed home to watch a special episode of his favorite soap opera. Instead, they take hostages -- first, all of the building's occupants, but eventually they let the workers and some of the guests go. The group of hostages that remains consists of 39 men and one woman: Roxane Coss. As negotiations drag on, the hostages and terrorists form an unexpected community. There are games of chess, fine French cooking, and opera -- sublime, intimate performances by the world's foremost lyric soprano. Despite the fear and discomfort, for some in the building, this is the best time of their lives. But it can't last forever...I loved everything about this book, right up until the epilogue, which I hated. I think that, if there had been a second book in between the last chapter and the epilogue, if I had been able to see how things developed, I could have appreciated it, but as it was, it just felt jarring and abrupt. However, the rest of the book is so good that I highly recommend it. I listened to the audiobook, and I highly recommend that format, as well: there are many hard-to-pronounce names, a sprinkling of Spanish words, and the narrator does an excellent job with all of the different voices and accents. I could hardly put it down, and found myself listening whenever I had a snippet of time.

[allriledup · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very enjoyable read and much of the story speaks to the translator's dilemma.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“‘Who knew that being kidnapped was so much like attending university?’ Gen said.” — Ann Patchett, “Bel Canto”In Ann Patchett’s magical 2001 novel, a prolonged hostage situation in an unnamed Latin America country turns into an educational opportunity for both hostages and terrorists. A tiny ragtag liberation army composed mostly of teenagers, including two girls, crashes a birthday party for a prominent Japanese businessman, Katsumi Hosokawa, held at the vice president’s home. The featured guest is the celebrated American opera singer Roxane Coss, because Hosokawa loves opera. The terrorists had planned to kidnap the country’s president and trade him for the release of political prisoners, but the president has stayed home to watch his favorite soap opera. So Roxane becomes the big prize, along with all of the male party guests, who come from a variety of countries and speak a variety of languages.The negotiations drag on for months, during which time the situation becomes not just the normal but the ideal. Roxane falls in love with Hosokawa, even though they cannot speak the same language. Gen, the translator and thus the most valuable person in the house, falls in love with Carmen, a pretty soldier whom he teaches to read and write. Another young soldier learns to play chess, while another, with Roxane’s instruction, learns to sing opera. The vice president, who has never done manual labor in his life, develops skills at both housekeeping and gardening. And so on.As one of the generals says near the end of the novel, “It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.”Yet as prevalent as this education theme may be in the novel, it is not the dominant one. That has to do with service, grace, second chances and the power of music. The vice president becomes a humble servant after his servants are released. Gen, the translator everyone depends on, becomes everyone’s servant, as well. Beatriz, the other female soldier, confesses to a priest for the first time in her life, discovering the freedom in forgiveness.Then there is Roxane. Again and again we find lines like these when she sings, something that becomes the highlight of everyone’s day: “God’s own voice poured from her,” “such a voice must come from God” and “she sang as if she was saving the life of every person in the room.”If captivity can become a paradise, then rescue paradoxically becomes paradise lost. Patchett’s ending brings the harsh real world back and disappoints for that reason. Readers, like both the captors and the captives, much prefer the captivity of the book’s first nine chapters.

[fbgnewbies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Terrorism turns into a story of relationships with sympathetic characters on both sides. Outcome is sad but realistic.

[abycats_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is worth reading solely for its presentation of how passionate people can be about music and opera. The Stockholm aspects are decently done but not as interesting, at least to me. The first pages tho are memorable.

[abergsman-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a beautiful book. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to reading it.

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am becoming more of an Ann Patchett can. A clever story based on the taking hostage of the Japanese embassy in Peru and offering her the opportunity to do detail character development studies which left me caring about all of them and wishing I could learn more. In the discussion at the end of the book she described it as an opera about opera. Glad I finally got around to reading it. A surprise ending.

[ebt1002 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Okay, I had put off reading this novel for years, partly based on the unlikely and odd premise: a Japanese businessman visiting an unnamed South(?) American country is invited to celebrate his 53rd birthday at the home of the vice president; as a gift, a famous American soprano is booked to sing half a dozen arias for the guest of honor. In the midst of the evening, a group of terrorists break their way into the VP's home, taking the entire party hostage. The novel takes place in the confines of this luxurious home as the hostages and police negotiators reach and languish at a stalemate. And so the terrorists and hostages settle in for what turns out to be a months-long opportunity to get to know one another, for relationships to develop, dreams to consolidate, and identities to shift ever so slightly. I loved this novel. At once a celebration of art and an affirmation of the human striving for both beauty and connection, it is a moving and funny and deeply satisfying read.

[christina_e_mitchell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I so much enjoy Ann Patchett's writing. I wish I were in a better place emotionally to enjoy this book that I had wanted to read for so very long. Patchett's writing is clear, uncomplicated, but mesmerizing. The story between captors and captives is one that is as unusual as it is tender. The ending is movingly profound and surprising. To have so much caring and love within such confinement. It was a gift for all involved.

I will need to read this book again, once my own broken heart has healed. I would better be able to immerse myself in the beauty of this operatic story of developing love, a crescendo of tragedy, and the recovery of lives left behind to go on.

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A perfect meld of character viewpoint and authorial voice. If you're interested in the art of the novelist it's worth reading for that alone. Also the prose is rich and smooth but not ostentatious. And also, Patchett knows how to control a story. Very romantic. By the end I was hoping the children would be released.