One Community, One Book: 2003 Selection
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
Winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, "Bel Canto" is a moving and often surprising story of terrorism gone awry and the power of music to create unlikely connections between disparate people.
As opera star Roxanne Coss completes her performance during a birthday party thrown by a small South American government for a powerful Japanese businessman, the lights go out and the entire party is taken hostage by a group of terrorists hoping to kidnap the country's (absent) president. Failing to capture their intended prize, the terrorists settle in for a long siege inside the vice-president's home. Across barriers of language and culture, the captives -- and eventually their captors -- create a functioning, if uneasy, community centered on the beauty of Coss' art. Her singing bridges the distance, if only temporarily, between kidnapper and kidnapped.
"Bel Canto" invites contemplation of a range of issues, including human rights concerns and aesthetic questions. A gripping story that neither moralizes nor falls victim to cliche, "Bel Canto" is buoyed by Patchett's warm and wry prose. "Bel Canto" has been hailed as "A marvel of a book" by The Washington Post Book World and will appeal to a wide array of readers while sparking lively discussions.
Resources
A list of discussion questions is available.
Sponsors
In addition to The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, other project sponsors are the UI International writing Program, Prairie Lights Books, Coralville Public Library, Hancher Auditorium, Iowa Book LLC, Iowa City Human Rights Commission, Iowa City Public Library, Iowa City Press-Citizen, UI Charter Committee on Human Rights, UI International Programs and University Book Store. Iowa City High School and West High School Library are also participating.