Bel Canto

By: Ann Patchett

Narrated by: Anna Fields

“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.

Don't miss our free Ann Patchett interview. Patchett is an Audible CelebrityListener - find out what she's listening to here.©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)

Simply the best

This is the best audiobook I've ever listened to. I was spellbound by it. Anna Fields doesn't just narrate the story she becomes a dozen different people - most of them men! This is the kind of book that makes you wish for a traffic jam so you can listen longer. Of course, Patchett's story itself is compelling. The building of relationships between the hostages and the terrorists is perfectly built. By the end you've become a victim of Stockholm Syndrome yourself. I've recommended this book to just about everyone I know.

Bel canto

Excellent, gripping story. I couldn't wait to get in the car for my commute so I could listen to this book.

Slow start and never quite picks up the pace

Any additional comments?

I know I'm in the minority on the minority on this one, but this book just didn't wow me. I have read the reviews for years now and was always mildly interested, but the editors description never quite grabbed me. Unfortunately, the actual story didn't either.

The book is about a group of people who gathered together for a birthday party and to see a famous opera singer perform. The party, however, becomes a hostage situation, as soldiers break in and take all of the guests hostage. (small spoiler alert here) Everyone suffers from stockholm syndrome and befriends their captors, come to love them for different reasons and in the end try to protect them....blah blah blah....

All this happens and yet it felt like nothing really happened, because it was so slow going. In addition, you have to believe that the magic and beauty of opera really changed, or at least affected, the hearts and minds of almost everyone in the room. And that everyone involved had the capacity to see beauty everywhere because of it. Not believable, if you ask me.

Maybe my expectations were too high after reading so many excellent reviews. Anna Field, however, was a great narrator. She's excellent with accents and different male/female voices. She is always a joy to listen to.

Beautiful--Engaging

This book is mesmerizing. When a read a few of the reviews regarding the depressing nature of the story, I was completely surprised. I found it moving and optimistic?a celebration of the human spirit at its core. Although I found the reader a little flat in the beginning, I quickly forgot about it as I got lost in Pachett?s prose. A must listen.

Excellent Choice

Rich in descriptive writing. Just listening to the artistry in words is wonderful and sets the imagination running. Good reader and intonations. Wonderful development of characters. The plot itself is really rather fanciful and perhaps fraught with problems in reality, but the author's mastery of words and character development causes the listener to simply forget and go with the flow. All is forgiven because the listener simply is drawn into the story with the beauty of words and the richnest of the environment the author displays.

nah, not for me

What did you like best about Bel Canto? What did you like least?

I really didn't like the narrators voice, too feminine. Might be a good story, but I couldn't get past her reading. I couldn't pay attention enough to get it.

Encore - encore!

My experience with this book mirrors many of the other reviews I read. It is not particularly interesting at the beginning. The author gives you what seems to be MANY too many details about the individual characters, and yet very little action. I kept waiting for something to happen.

But the characters and their relationships ARE the story. The unfolding of friendships, the dramatic reversals in roles, the blossoming of unexpected love, and the creation of a real community ... that is what eventually grabs your attention.

I have to also say that the narrator did a fabulous job with an enormous number of accents.

Well worth it.

Excellent commuter companion

This story was completely engaging and beautifully read.

Comes together very well!

Ann Patchett brings the end of this book together so well!! Really interesting rye way the structure mirrors the story.

Recommend

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Interesting story and well narrated. Amongst the top books I've listed to this past year.