Bel Canto
Author: Ann Patchett
Publisher: Harper Perennial
View on Goodreads
Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop,* which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.
Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
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 guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening, until a band of terrorists breaks in, taking the entire party hostage.
But what begins as a life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different. 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.
Ann Patchett has written a novel that is as lyrical and profound as it is unforgettable. Bel Canto is a virtuoso performance by one of our best and most important writers.
TL;DR Review
Bel Canto is beautiful and devastating, and as you’d expect from the title, it flows like music. This might be my favorite Ann Patchett so far.
For you if: You like books written with language that sings and tugs at your heart.
Full Review
“There were worse reasons to keep a person hostage. You keep someone always for what he or she is worth to you, for what you can trade her for, money or freedom or somebody else you want more. Any person can be a kind of trading chip when you find a way to hold her. So to hold someone for song, because the thing longed for was the sound of her voice, wasn’t it all the same?”
I would have read Bel Canto someday no matter what, because it’s Ann Patchett and because everyone who reads it loves it. But it also won the Women’s Prize in 2002, which puts it on the #ReadingWomen list.
A group of people from all over the world are attending an intimate concert by a famous opera soprano, hosted at the home of this South American country's vice president. Terrorists crash the party and take them hostage, and as hours become days and then months of standoff, Patchett shows us exactly how universal humanity is; our cares, our fears, our talents, our value, our love. “Terrorists vs hostages” blurs and morphs and becomes a giant group of humans, together.
This book is tender and heartbreaking and incredibly beautiful. I particularly loved how Patchett so obviously measured and crafted each sentence to create the literal rhythm of music. At one point I stopped comprehending the words entirely as I focused on the length of each sentence, how the cadence lulls you. It’s truly an incredible example of craft.
I also really loved the decision to use Gen, the translator, as a central tenet to the story. If these people trapped in a house for months together had all spoken the same language, she never would have been able to expose their shared humanity in the same way. My heart broke for the terrorists, so many of whom were teenagers with minds and talents — language, chess, music — that had just never been allowed to flourish.
You know from the beginning — she tells you — that this book is not going to have a happy ending. And all you can do is let go and allow her to carry you toward its heartbreaking ending.
“‘It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how.’”
Trigger Warnings
Hostage situation
Gun violence
*This is an affiliate link to Bookshop.org, an online alternative to buying books on Amazon. A portion of every sale goes directly to independent bookstores! When you buy a book using my link, I will also receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting indies. They need us.