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Bel Canto
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
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Bel Canto
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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.
Listeners also enjoyed...
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 ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MS D M T HILBOURNE
- 05-01-24
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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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MicT
- 22-01-23
A powerful story
I enjoyed this book. It is a tragic story, but it ends with hope. The narration was good.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lee
- 21-09-23
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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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ncp
- 03-04-22
Really enjoyable listen!
Very easy listening while at the same time well written. I really enjoyed this one - listened over the course of a weekend of covid and have to say it made the time fly by!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. R. Mcelroy
- 23-09-22
A wonderfully written book
Somehow a very compelling read and wonderfully performed. Such a simple story but rich in observation of human behaviour.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rose
- 10-01-21
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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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- anne-marie long
- 07-07-22
A masterpiece
Totally captivating. book. Gripping, clever with fully developed characters . I didn't want it to end. 'Unputdownable'!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 13-12-18
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
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dr sarah Basham
- 30-12-23
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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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anya Bee
- 11-06-24
Fascinating and unusual
Unusual, mesmerising story, so cleverly and effortlessly switching between the narrative voices of several characters. Slow paced but utterly absorbing. I could picture the house, the garden, the piano and the china closet so distinctly, felt completely absorbed. Hard to say much about it without giving plot spoilers but overall a sumptuous and enchanting read.
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1 person found this helpful