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Awards
Winner of the 2002 Orange Prize
Finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)
"There are quite a few improbable aspects to Bel Canto, but the handful of times when I found my head popping above the surface of Patchett's novel to catch a quick lungful of realism — is it really possible that among a group of 57 assorted men there wouldn't be one opera hater or homosexual? — I was promptly sucked back under the surface by the book's bewitching undertow. This is a story of passionate, doomed love; of the glory of art; of the triumph of our shared humanity over the forces that divide us, and a couple of other unbearably cheesy themes, and yet Patchett makes it work, completely." Laura Miller, Salon.com (click here to read the entire Salon.com review)
Synopses & Reviews
From Powells.com:
"Soon enough," Patchett writes, "the days were divided into three states: the anticipation of her singing, the pleasure of her singing, and the reflection on her singing." The New Yorker raved, "Patchett's tragicomic novel — a fantasia of guns and Puccini and Red Cross negotiations — invokes the glorious, unreliable promises of art, politics and love. Against this grand backdrop, the smallest gestures bloom with meaning." As Laura Miller concluded in a review for Salon.com, "Patchett makes it work, completely." Dave, Powells.com
Publisher Comments:
Without the demands of the world to shape their days, life on the inside becomes more beautiful than anything they had ever known before. At once riveting and impassioned, the narrative becomes a moving exploration of how people communicate when music is the only common language. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.
Ann Patchett has written a novel that is as lyrical and profound as it is unforgettable. Bel Canto engenders in the reader the very passion for art and the language of music that its characters discover. As a reader, you find yourself fervently wanting this captivity to continue forever, even though you know that real life waits on the other side of the garden wall. Bel Canto is a virtuoso performance by one of our best and most important writers. It is a novel to be cherished.
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About the Author
While attending Sarah Lawrence College, Patchett took fiction writing classes with Alan Gurganus, Russell Banks, and Grace Paley. She sold her first story to the Paris Review, where it was published before her graduation. Patchett then went on to attend the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop.
In 1990, Patchett won a residential fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is there that she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liarswhich received a James A. Michener/ Copernicus Award for a book in progress. In 1993, she received a Bunting Fellowship from the Mary Ingrahm Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College.
Patchett's second novel, Taftwas awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best work of fiction in 1994. Her third novel, The Magician's Assistant,was short-listed for England's Orange Prize and earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994. In October of the same year, just three days after the official release of The Magician's Assistant,Patchett was awarded the Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award.
She has also written for numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazineand Gourmet.
Ann Patchett's most recent novel, Bel Canto,won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Patchett currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
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whoseblues1, June 28, 2007 (view all comments by whoseblues1)
On a scale of 5, I'd give it a 10. Patchett's writing is like butter -- so easy to read, so evocative, so warm and brilliant. The story is wonderful, and wonderfully told. Yes, there are improbabilities -- it's not journalism, it's fiction -- but the story is so entrancing and the writing so enchanting that you're more than willing to buy in. The cultural juxtapositions are spot on, whether simply sketched or illustrated in depth. If you are a reader of literary fiction, take the time to read this book, now! If literary fiction isn't typically your cup of tea, give this book a shot anyway. There's a reason this book won the PEN/Faulkner and Orange Awards and came out as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It's really just plain too good to miss.
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Eleanor, September 28, 2006 (view all comments by Eleanor)
A beautifully written story. Loosely inspired by a real-life incident, the reader knows how the story will end within a few pages. However, Patchett creates a separate world within the walls of a Vice Presidential mansion that has been taken over by terrorists. Shades of gray and the human heart play more of a role in the book than any political motivation. The story also ends on a surprisingly peaceful note.
View all 2 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780060838720
- Subtitle:
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Harper Perennial
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Opera
- Subject:
- Hostages
- Subject:
- General Fiction
- Series:
- P.S.
- Publication Date:
- August 2005
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 352
- Dimensions:
- 8.10x5.32x.83 in. .58 lbs.
