A marvel of a book." - Washington Post Book WorldĪnn Patchett’s spellbinding novel about love and opera, and the unifying ways people learn to communicate across cultural barriers in times of crisis. National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.St Joseph's University (Brooklyn Voices Series).All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how. And all you can do is let go and allow her to carry you toward its heartbreaking ending. You know from the beginning - she tells you - that this book is not going to have a happy ending. 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. 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. I also really loved the decision to use Gen, the translator, as a central tenet to the story. It’s truly an incredible example of craft. At one point I stopped comprehending the words entirely as I focused on the length of each sentence, how the cadence lulls you. I particularly loved how Patchett so obviously measured and crafted each sentence to create the literal rhythm of music. This book is tender and heartbreaking and incredibly beautiful. “Terrorists vs hostages” blurs and morphs and becomes a giant group of humans, together. 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. But it also won the Women’s Prize in 2002, which puts it on the #ReadingWomen list.Ī 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. I would have read Bel Canto someday no matter what, because it’s Ann Patchett and because everyone who reads it loves it. So to hold someone for song, because the thing longed for was the sound of her voice, wasn’t it all the same?” Any person can be a kind of trading chip when you find a way to hold her. 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. “There were worse reasons to keep a person hostage.
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