When the lights come back on, the dinner guests are surrounded by terrorists. On the last note of the one he treasures most, from Anton Dvorak’s Rusalka, the lights go out, plunging the hosting Vice President’s exquisite mansion into total darkness. Highlighting his birthday festivities will be the voice of his favorite soprano, Roxanne Coss, who has been paid a great deal of money to appear in person and sing arias he loves. Patchett’s novel opens with a sumptuous birthday party thrown by an unnamed South American government to honor a Japanese businessman, hoping that he might invest in their impoverished country. I whole-heartedly concur with the San Francisco Chronicle’s assessment, “A strange, terrific, spell-casting story,” and I most enthusiastically recommend Bel Canto to any “Bookin’ with Sunny” reader who hasn’t yet discovered its magic. Bel Canto is one of those novels that reverberates in the imagination, sings to the intellect, and echoes in the heart. Now that I’ve read the narrative myself, I certainly see why this most creative piece of writing was given so many accolades. Ann Patchett’s highly-regarded 2001 novel, Bel Canto, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, won the Orange Prize, and won the Penn/Faulkner Award.
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