Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I just finished Ann Patchett's famous book, Bel Canto. It takes place in a unnamed South American country. The Vice President is hosting a birthday party, and he invites the famous opera singer to perform. The house has over one hundred guests, and after the sixth song, the lights go out, and a terrorist group from the jungle has taken all of the guests hostage. Friendships are made, and the barrior between the hostages and their captors breaks down. The writer has done a marvelous job of getting into the personalities of the characters. Put into a strange relationship with each other, they are all calmed when the opera singer decides that she needs to practice her singing, and finds an uxexpected accomplice in the guest list of cororate leaders from various countries. Gen, the translator for the Japanese birthday guest, is able to communicate in multiple languages. Pretty soon he is the secretary for the terrorist group, as well as the translator between the rich Japanese businessman and the American opera star. It is a well told story.