Bel Canto

Author(s): Patchett, Ann
Binding: Paperback,
Date of Publication: 30/04/2002,
Pagination: 336 pages,
ISBN13\EAN\SKU: 9781841155838,
Description:

Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The poignant – and at times very funny – novel from the author of The Dutch House and Commonwealth.

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honour of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerised 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.