Bel Canto: Film tie-in: Film tie-in edition
Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
The poignant – and at times very funny – novel from the author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth.
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country’s vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera’s most revered soprano, has mesmerised 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.
”'A beguiling mix of thriller, romantic comedy, and novel of ideas…Crisply written, immaculately plotted, and often very funny, it is that rarity - a literary novel you simply can’t put down.” - The Times
”'Blissfully romantic … A terrific, spellcasting story.” - San Francisco Chronicle
”'Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett’s fiction.” - New York Times Review of Books