Bel Canto

By: Ann Patchett

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

“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 Times best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’s other novels, including Truth & Beauty and The Magician’s Assistant, the author’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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©2001 Ann Patchett (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers

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)

How can being a hostage be humorous?

What made the experience of listening to Bel Canto the most enjoyable?

I was afraid it would be grim, but Ann Patchett manages to lace the story with gentle humour. And of course, there are romances.

Have you listened to any of Anna Fields’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have never heard Anna Fields before, but she was amazing with Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, French, Swiss, English and probably other accents.

If only all books were this good

Would you consider the audio edition of Bel Canto to be better than the print version?

Yes.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Since I have read this book I have been on a fruitless search to find another one which captures me in the same way.

Unexpectedly entertaining

Very enticing story-line making it hard to stop listening once it gets going. The narration was ideal, it somehow felt as if Anna Fields was ment to narrate it. She made the story come alive more.

Two repeats

Do editors proof audio books? There were 2 sections that were repeated. Otherwise , the narrator did a great job.

Unforgettable and Amazing

Exciting, unexpected (in every sense of the word), thrilling, and just so incredibly well written. Just finished it and I feel like I wasn’t just reading the book but living the book. Wow.

Minor recording errors

Wonderfully written and performed. However there were two times that the recording skipped and repeated itself. They were not big repeats, 15 to 30 seconds max.

You will never predict the ending.....

This is a story of a hostage situation in South America. An elite group of leaders and the wealthy from all over the world are brought to a soirée to hear a world famous opera singer at a vice presidential residence. The occasion is a birthday but also an opportunity to hear said singer and possibly develop business in the unnamed country.
This very diverse group of people are held by a “rebel” group from “the jungle“. But things don’t always go as planned.......unforeseen circumstances cause unforeseen conclusions. What happens when a diverse group is placed together over a period of months? The humanity of the rebels is discovered during the ordeal. Although the opera singer is central to the story, there are many other characters that are developed during the course of the story. I love that the characters are not predictable cookie-cutter people but instead interesting characters with depth. Very imaginative and well written. I love Ann Patchett’s style of writing. Clear, original and unique. If you want an interesting story that does not involve zombies or nightmares, this one is definitely worth a credit

Extraordinary story!

Well-written and unique. A superb listen! I am grateful for authors who can write like Patchett.

Worthy read

Enjoyable read but the ending is very forced. The power of music to transcend all, well almost all, is the true star.

Fascinating in some parts, off the track in others

As a story about the way in which very different people learn to interrelate when forced together in a crisis, the book is fascinating. But it is hard to get into the beginning, hard to deal with the end, and way too long in the middle. For me, the problem with the book is that it too often strains credulity, starting with the initial takeover. In some sense, the idea of the book post-takeover takes on its own life and is at first both credible and moving. As it goes on, however, the interpersonal relationships start to feel artificial, and the double ending -- the end of the captivity, which is over-the-top, and the epilogue, which made no sense to me -- spoils the story.