Bel Canto
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Bel Canto
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Narrated by:
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Anna Fields
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By:
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Ann Patchett
About this listen
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 21st Century
""Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book."" —Washington Post Book World
New York Times bestselling author 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.
©2001 Ann Patchett (P)2001 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
- 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction
- Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winner, Paperback, 2003
- PEN/Faulkner Award Winner, 2002
"Patchett can be counted on to deliver novels rich in imaginative bravado and psychological nuance. This fluid and assured narrative...demonstrates her growing maturity and mastery of form." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mixing art and politics can have unexpected results, but rarely are they so poignant....[Anna Fields'] performance is the essence of Bel Canto, easy, pure of tone, with an agile, precise vocal technique." (AudioFile)
What listeners say about Bel Canto
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MS D M T HILBOURNE
- 05-01-24
really page tuener
gripping and touching and beautifully written. compassionate view of life. the characters are totally believable and their relationships unusual
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MicT
- 22-01-23
A powerful story
I enjoyed this book. It is a tragic story, but it ends with hope. The narration was good.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lee
- 21-09-23
Gorgeous story and writing
Didn’t want this book to end - beautiful writing, characters you care about and excellent sensitive narration
Loved it
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ncp
- 03-04-22
Really enjoyable listen!
Very easy listening while at the same time well written. I really enjoyed this one - listened over the course of a weekend of covid and have to say it made the time fly by!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. R. Mcelroy
- 23-09-22
A wonderfully written book
Somehow a very compelling read and wonderfully performed. Such a simple story but rich in observation of human behaviour.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Mrs D Simon
- 19-08-24
Very boring
I am sorry but I couldn’t wait for this book to be over. At first, I struggled through waiting for the story to pick up but it was getting more and more dull with every chapter. I now have 2 hours left to listen and I couldn’t care less how this book ends.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Prabhu
- 26-04-24
Bel Canto
Beautiful story and very well read. Really a must listen with a great pace. it's an extrapolation of a true story that happened in the Japanese what in Lima.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mgt and Norman
- 11-02-24
brilliant beguiling breathtaking
beautifully written. a fabulous story. perfectly described. captivating idea beautifully crafted. every character ideally imagined. bravo another masterpiece
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 13-12-18
Just wonderful!
Beautiful and sad in equal measure. Exquisitely written and very well read. You can hear the music through the author's words.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anya Bee
- 11-06-24
Fascinating and unusual
Unusual, mesmerising story, so cleverly and effortlessly switching between the narrative voices of several characters. Slow paced but utterly absorbing. I could picture the house, the garden, the piano and the china closet so distinctly, felt completely absorbed. Hard to say much about it without giving plot spoilers but overall a sumptuous and enchanting read.
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1 person found this helpful