Bel Canto

I finally got around to reading Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto (Harper Perennial), a novel set in an undisclosed South American country (hint: it’s Peru). The vice president is hosting a swanky party at his mansion with an impressive guest list that includes a world-famous opera singer, a business tycoon from Japan, and an assortment of diplomats. The president is a no-show, which turns out to be a real bummer for the band of guerrillas who crash the party, intent on kidnapping him and overthrowing the government. What follows, as my friend and former priest Chris Schutte puts it, is a “beautiful story about the transcendent power of art in the midst of a brutal world.”