Bel Canto

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 21^st Century

"Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book." —Washington Post Book World

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 make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.

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Published Aug 2, 2005

318 pages

Average rating: 7.38

395 RATINGS

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What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Bel Canto* by Ann Patchett is a captivating, seamless, and emotionally rich novel blending opera, hostage drama, and unexpected friendshi...

boyleschris

Dec 15, 2024

Lesa's current read; likes this author

frannie-puckett

Mar 17, 2024

8/10 stars

I read this book on recommendation from a friend in my book club. It reminded me somewhat of A Gentleman in Moscow as it pertains to people who are confined to one space and how they adapt. I was very drawn in by the characters in Bel Canto and couldn’t wait to see how it ended. The Audible version was enhanced by the narrator’s ease of Italian and other foreign languages.

Wannabwestern

Jan 14, 2026

8/10 stars

I was kicked out of my book club for recommending this book about Stockholm syndrome. It has a racy chapter but it is written in a dreamlike manner that few authors could have believably pulled off. This is a gorgeous piece of literature.

Aravind Anilkumar

Dec 10, 2025

10/10 stars

This is indeed one of the very best books i have read this year, it is seamless and flowing and it captivates and enthralls.

Slowly as the hilarity of the hostage taking and its fallout ensues, we ourself are held captive in the exemplary Bel Canto by Ann pratchet.

It is easily an easy to read book, a page turner that can force you to finish it in a single sitting.

As with any good book, you fall in love with the characters, you stand for them, you weep with them and feel their hearts beats as they fall helplessly in love.

One should definitely read this and possibly like me you will be forced to read other books by Ann, albeit they may be better still.

SherylStandifer

Nov 06, 2025

9/10 stars

What an interesting read. Or, in my case, listen. This novel was written about a quarter of a century ago, but feels as contemporary and in the headlines, as if it were today. The story takes place in an unspecified South American country, at a gala event, complete with dignitaries and a world reknowned opera singer flown in to entertain. Unbeknown to the guests, a terrorist cell climbs through the mansion air-conditioning vents to take the guests hostage. They are looking for the country’s president, who didn’t attend at the last moment. What no one has the foresight to imagine, is that they are all cooped-up in the mansion for the long haul. And even more amazing to all participants, was that they form friendships during the siege. Because of the failure of the terrorists in their poor planning - e.g., failure to capture the president - they didn’t know how to actually leave the situation they instigated. So they made due by communicating through one of the guests, an interpreter, and uniting in their appreciation of the ‘bel canto’ of the opera singer. A great story, that only had one way to end. But what a ride.