Bel Canto [Paperback]

Now a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe.

“Blissfully Romantic….A strange, terrific, spellcasting story.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Bel Canto…should be on the list of every literate music lover. The story is riveting, the participants breathe and feel and are alive, and throughout this elegantly-told novel, music pours forth so splendidly that the reader hears it and is overwhelmed by its beauty.” —Lloyd Moss, WXQR

“Glorious.” —The New Yorker

Ann Patchett’s award winning,New York TimesbestsellingBel Cantobalances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Patchett’s other novels, includingTruth & Beauty andThe Magician’s Assistant, the author’s lyrical prose and lucid imagination makeBel Cantoa captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance.

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 gunwielding 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.