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 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.Overall, if you are a fan of slow-paced, character driven stories with beautiful prose, I would recommend this book. But the epilogue felt a bit pointless, and I still don’t know how I feel about it. The ending irked me, but as I later found out this was based on true events, I now understand the ending for what it is. The first 2/3 of this book moves incredibly slow, and the last 1/3 feels rushed, to wrap up the hostage situation and deal with the aftermath. But I could not get myself to actually care about them. Intellectually, I understood how these characters grew so close - after months spent with only each other, feelings are bound to form between one another. Perhaps there were too many perspectives for me to invest in a specific storyline. The language is beautiful, and the way the story is told is compelling, but I think I lacked an emotional connection with the characters. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how. The trivial moments in life become the most important, and communication is found in a slight smile or stolen glances. Life is boiled down to morning routines and the daily opera performance by the one woman in the house. Strangers become friends, lovers, partners. What begins as a birthday party turns into months in close quarters with both groups.

In a kidnapping gone wrong, a houseful of important men (with 1 woman) are held hostage by a group of terrorists in a foreign city. I had heard amazing things about Bel Canto, so I was looking forward to picking this one up. The only other Ann Patchett book I’ve read is The Dutch House, and that audiobook is narrated by Tom Hanks. Bel Canto was my January pick for my Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge with my sister.

Bel canto book review