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Bel Canto

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Bel Canto

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Anna Fields
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Summary

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 makeBel 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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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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I was drawn in to the story from the first page. Excellent narration. Well done Ann Patchett for keeping me entertained for a few weeks.

Excellent read!

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gripping and touching and beautifully written. compassionate view of life. the characters are totally believable and their relationships unusual

really page tuener

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Didn’t want this book to end - beautiful writing, characters you care about and excellent sensitive narration
Loved it

Gorgeous story and writing

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It is almost inconceivable that anyone could narrate this magic book so perfectly. So many accents, so much warmth, charm and tenderness.

Astonishing story and narrator

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