A strange, terrific, spellcasting story.' - San Francisco Chronicle Ann Patchett is a special writer who has written a special book.' - Lloyd Moss, WXQR The story is riveting, the participants breathe and feel and are alive, and throughout this elegantly-told novel, music pours forth so splendidly that the reader hears it and is overwhelmed by its beauty. ' Bel Canto by Ann Patchett should be on the list of every literate music lover. 'This fluid and assured narrative, inspired by a real incident, demonstrates her growing maturity and mastery of form as she artfully integrates a musical theme within a dramatic story.' - Publisher's Weekly 'A novel that showcases profound understanding of the heart.' - BookForum 'Patchett's ability to evoke sense of place.is near magical in itself.' - Publishers Weekly ' Bel Canto has all the qualities one has come to expect from a classic Ann Patchett novel: grace, beauty, elegance, and magic.' - Madison Smartt Bell 'One approaches the final pages with a heavy heart for several reasons, not the least of which being that this fine read has come to an end.' - Entertainment Weekly (A-) A novel that begins with a kiss and absolutely deserves one.' - Janet Maslin, New York Times 'Patchett's tragicomic novel-a fantasia of guns and Puccini and Red Cross negotiations-invokes the glorious, unreliable promises of art, politics, and love.' - New Yorker 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. 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. It is a perfect evening-until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing.

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. 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 A marvel of a book.' - Washington Post Book World Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award - Winner of the Orange Prize - National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist