Bel Canto
PerfectBound e-book exclusive: "Friendship and Love," an interview with Ann Patchett.A prolonged hostage crisis in the lavish home of a South American politician turns into something quite different as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and passionate, ill-fated love blooms. Winner of the 2002 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction.Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. 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 breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about Bel Canto
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
At a lavish birthday party in a vice president's home in an unnamed South American country, guerrillas storm the building looking for the wrong target. Months pass with hostages, captors, and an opera singer inside.
Bel Canto was written by Ann Patchett and published in 2001. It is loosely inspired by the 1996 to 1997 Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Lima, Peru.
Yes. Bel Canto won the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Orange Prize for Fiction. It is widely considered Ann Patchett's breakthrough novel.
Bel Canto is 336 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Bel Canto takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Bel Canto is a standalone novel by an unknown author, not part of a series.
Bel Canto is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.