Bel Canto

Ann Patchett’s engrossing book “Bel Canto” takes place in a potentially fatal situation. Terrorists from Latin America infiltrate an international conference held by a developing nation to advance trade and foreign interests. But the President, who is their planned target, has stayed at home to watch his preferred soap opera on television. What starts as fear gradually transforms into something very different—a breathtaking moment. People from faraway continents become intimate friends, lovers, and countrymen as terrorists and hostages create unanticipated relationships. Bel Canto, with Patchett’s poetic style and clear imagination, is a story of love, strength, frailty, incarceration, and transcendent romance.