Bel Canto

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 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.

"Patchett doing what she does best. . . . What gives this novel its power is Patchett's flair for sketching the subtleties of her characters' behavior."-New York Times Book Review

Freshman Common Book: NYU/Steinhardt School, Converse College, University of Nebraska-Lincoln