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Bel canto

by Patchett, Ann.

Format: Print Book ©2001.
Availability: Available at 14 Libraries 14 of 18 copies

Available (14)
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ACLA Mobile Library Services Fiction Collection FICTION Patchett
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Brentwood Library Fiction FICTION Patchett
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CLP - Brookline Fiction FICTION Patchett
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Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale Fiction Fic Pat
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Community Library of Allegheny Valley - Harrison Fiction FIC PATCHETT
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Monroeville Public Library Fiction Patchett
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Northern Tier Regional Library Fiction FIC PATCH
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Northland Public Library Fiction FIC PATCHETT
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Oakmont Carnegie Library Fiction PA
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Scott Township Library Fiction FIC PATCHETT
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Collection  Fiction
 
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South Fayette Township Library Fiction FIC PAT
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Collection  Fiction
 
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Upper St. Clair Township Library Literary Fiction LITERARY PATCHETT Ann
Location  Upper St. Clair Township Library
 
Collection  Literary Fiction
 
Call Number  LITERARY PATCHETT Ann
 
 
Whitehall Public Library Fiction Collection FIC Patchett
Location  Whitehall Public Library
 
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Unavailable (4)
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Cooper-Siegel Community Library Fiction DISPLAY
Location  Cooper-Siegel Community Library
 
Collection  Fiction
 
Status  DISPLAY
 
 
Cooper-Siegel Community Library - Sharpsburg Fiction DAMAGED
Location  Cooper-Siegel Community Library - Sharpsburg
 
Collection  Fiction
 
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Northland Public Library Fiction CHECKED OUT
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Sewickley Public Library Fiction IN TRANSIT
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Summary

Now a major motion picture starring Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe.

"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 bestselling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Patchett'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.

Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Readers curious about the emotional flow between hostages and their takers should cotton to this novel based on the 1996 Tupac Amaru takeover of the Japanese ambassadorial residence in Lima, Peru. It traces the hostages' adjusting attitudes during the torpor of a months-long siege. Relief from their tedium takes the form of luscious world-class soprano Roxane Coss, who had been entertaining an international assortment of diplomats and businesspersons when the terrorists took the Peruvian vice president's house. Everybody loves her, eventually--a Russian diplomat, the Japanese tycoon who paid for her performance, one of the teenage hostage-takers, and so on. The medium for all professions of admiration and love is polylingual Gen Watanabe. As Watanabe flits from conversation to conversation, Patchett develops the characters' thoughts. Watanabe, for example, takes a shine to a child-soldier terrorist, Carmen, who comes to share the fate of an operatic earlier bearer of her name. Unhurriedly, even languorously, Patchett brings readers into the minds of the characters. --Gilbert Taylor"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "As her readers now eagerly anticipate, Patchett (The Magician's Assistant) can be counted on to deliver novels rich in imaginative bravado and psychological nuance. This fluid and assured narrative, inspired by a real incident, demonstrates her growing maturity and mastery of form as she artfully integrates a musical theme within a dramatic story. Celebrated American soprano Roxane Coss has just finished a recital in the home of the vice-president of a poor South American country when terrorists burst in, intent on taking the country's president hostage. The president, however, has not attended the concert, which is a birthday tribute in honor of a Japanese business tycoon and opera aficionado. Determined to fulfill their demands, the rough, desperate guerrillas settle in for a long siege. The hostages, winnowed of all women except Roxane, whose voice beguiles her captors, are from many countries; their only common language is a love of opera. As the days drag on, their initial anguish and fear give way to a kind of complex domesticity, as intricately involved as the melodies Roxane sings during their captivity. While at first Patchett's tone seems oddly flippant and detached, it soon becomes apparent that this light note is an introduction to her main theme, which is each character's cathartic experience. The drawn-out hostage situation comes to seem normal, even halcyon, until the inevitable rescue attempt occurs, with astonishing consequences. Patchett proves equal to her themes; the characters' relationships mirror the passion and pain of grand opera, and readers are swept up in a crescendo of emotional fervor. 8-city author tour. (June) Forecast: Opera can be a tough sell, and though the musical theme is deftly integrated, this book may have a harder time catching readers' interest than did Patchett's first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. Positive critical response should attract attention, however. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Women singers -- Fiction.
Victims of terrorism -- Fiction.
Embassy buildings -- Fiction.
Hostages -- Fiction.
South America -- Fiction.
Publisher New York :HarperCollins,©2001.
Language English
Description 318 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN 0060838728 (paperback)
9780060934415
0060934417 (tradepaper)
9780060188733
0060188731 (hardcover)
Other Classic View