The terrorists have failed in their mission before they've even begun: their real target, the country's Japanese-born president, had stayed home on the crucial night ostensibly to attend to 'matters of Israel', actually to watch his favourite soap opera. Like the blueprint of operatic performance that she has imported, Patchett slides from strutting camp to high tragedy, minute social comedy to sublime romanticism.Īfter an initial period fraught with tension and danger - including an extraordinary description of the lingering death of Roxane's diabetic accompanist - the kidnapped household soon develops its own more peaceful rhythms. The novel's sensibilities extend from the sly wit of observational humour to subtle, mournful insights into the nature of yearning and desire. With bravura confidence and inventiveness she varies her pace to encompass both lightning flashes of brutality and terror and long stretches of incarcerated ennui. Like that of her heroine, Patchett's great talent in Bel Canto is one of range. As overtures to novels go, this one is pretty electrifying. As Roxane's final aria concludes, the lights in the vice-president's palatial home flicker and die, and terrorists swarm over the black-tie clad, turbot-eating dignitaries.

She herself is the bait for an even bigger fish: opera fanatic Katsumi Hosokawa, founder and president of a cash-rich electronics company, for whom the 'host country' (as it is always described) is throwing a birthday party in the hope of attracting investment. World-famous soprano Roxane Coss has been tempted to a small Latin American country against her better judgment, the lure of big bucks obscuring her characteristic fastidiousness.

Bel canto by ann patchett