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  • Bel Canto

  • By: Ann Patchett
  • Narrated by: Anna Fields
  • Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (224 ratings)
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Bel Canto cover art

Bel Canto

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Anna Fields
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Summary

“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 best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’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.

©2001 Ann Patchett (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

  • 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction
  • Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winner, Paperback, 2003
  • PEN/Faulkner Award Winner, 2002

"Patchett can be counted on to deliver novels rich in imaginative bravado and psychological nuance. This fluid and assured narrative...demonstrates her growing maturity and mastery of form." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mixing art and politics can have unexpected results, but rarely are they so poignant....[Anna Fields'] performance is the essence of Bel Canto, easy, pure of tone, with an agile, precise vocal technique." (AudioFile)

What listeners say about Bel Canto

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible. The story, the performance, the characters...

One of the best, if not THE best, audiobooks I’ve ever listened to, and I listen to loads of them! Simply stunning. I bought this on a whim, after it was recommended by someone, a rarity for me (I usually work my way through a meticulously curated wish list!). I’m so glad I took the risk! I’d never heard of the author, but her work is stunning. The characters were so beautifully conceived, and the story so wonderfully paced, that I was captivated and genuinely stunned into silence at the end. I wanted it to go in forever. I won’t give anything away about the story, but in brief a group of people of different nationalities are bought together in unusual circumstances, and the narrator did an incredibly job with the audiobook, taking on several different accents, without being a distraction. I can’t recommend this book enough, it’s a must-read!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Terrible audio quality

The performance in this audiobook was completely fine, but the experience was undone by shoddy recording quality. At times you can hear muffled conversations in the background

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent read!

I was drawn in to the story from the first page. Excellent narration. Well done Ann Patchett for keeping me entertained for a few weeks.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Bel Canto

As the terrorists and the hostages gradually become real to each other as individual human beings, so they become real to us, the readers. Ann Patchett skilfully draws us into their enclosed world and shows us the human and humane qualities of both sides and the inhumane machinations of power. Full of interest and pathos. It was some time before I could bring myself to listen to the last chapter.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Just wonderful!

Beautiful and sad in equal measure. Exquisitely written and very well read. You can hear the music through the author's words.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant beguiling breathtaking

beautifully written. a fabulous story. perfectly described. captivating idea beautifully crafted. every character ideally imagined. bravo another masterpiece

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

really page tuener

gripping and touching and beautifully written. compassionate view of life. the characters are totally believable and their relationships unusual

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautiful sad lyrical

I first heard this book many years ago, when won the orange prize. I’m now reading it again, or listening to it again, and I loved it the first time round, but adored it this time round. It is a magical beautiful story that extremely sad. I love Ann Patchett’s work,but particularly love this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gorgeous story and writing

Didn’t want this book to end - beautiful writing, characters you care about and excellent sensitive narration
Loved it

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

reality show

A story recommended and I was not let down..at times I felt I was in a reality show and waiting for a hostess to announce the winner...moving and touching and a reminder of the importance of humility and gratitude.

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