Ann Patchett - Bel Canto

Ann Patchett discusses her novel Bel Canto, which was awarded both the Orange Prize for Fiction and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Bel Canto is set in an unspecified Latin American country, where insurgents have stormed the vice-president's mansion during a diplomatic party, believing that they will capture the President himself. Unfortunately for the guerrillas, he has stayed home to watch his favourite soap opera, and they are left with a miscellaneous collection of hostages from various nations.

Celebrated soprano Roxane Coss is among those taken hostage and she strikes up a friendship with the opera-mad president of a Japanese electronics company who has long worshipped her from afar.

The novel is based on events in Peru in 1996 when a guerrilla group entered the Japanese ambassador's residence and seized nearly 600 hostages and demanded the release of a number of political prisoners. The resulting siege lasted four months.

In Bookclub Ann Patchett discusses the unlikely comedy in Bel Canto and how she wrote it just before 9/11, which she describes as a lifetime ago.

Presented by James Naughtie and including a group of invited readers.

Presenter : James Naughtie
Interviewed guest : Ann Patchett
Producer : Dymphna Flynn

September's Bookclub choice : The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe (1992).