I greatly enjoyed Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, a NYT best-selling book published in 2004. Again, I listened to the Audible version and was delighted with Anna Fields’s narration. I’m not an opera fan, but this book drew me closer to appreciating the art form. Bel Canto means beautiful singing, and you will find beautiful character development in this novel about a botched terrorist kidnapping in an unnamed South American country. The story evolves into a romantic drama based on the 1996 true story of ragtag revolutionaries in Peru. Terrorism is not to be respected, but by the time the ordeal is finished, you find yourself as concerned for the revolutionaries as the hostages.
