Bel Canto cover art

Bel Canto

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Bel Canto

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Anna Fields
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.20

Buy Now for £12.20

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
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most relevant
Somehow a very compelling read and wonderfully performed. Such a simple story but rich in observation of human behaviour.

A wonderfully written book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful story and very well read. Really a must listen with a great pace. it's an extrapolation of a true story that happened in the Japanese what in Lima.

Bel Canto

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A story recommended and I was not let down..at times I felt I was in a reality show and waiting for a hostess to announce the winner...moving and touching and a reminder of the importance of humility and gratitude.

reality show

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
beautifully written. a fabulous story. perfectly described. captivating idea beautifully crafted. every character ideally imagined. bravo another masterpiece

brilliant beguiling breathtaking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story will live with me for a long time, as has the first of Anne Patchett' s books that I've listened to, The Dutch House.
Bel Canto features people from many countries who speak different languages and the excellent narrator manages to convey the various voices without slipping into caricature.
Brilliantly structured book. might listen twice, which would be a first!

Superb narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews