stories as well. One of Somers's five top "bottle novels" where "the writers confine everyone in a single pressure cooker location, set the timer, and see what happens," as shared at B & N Reads:Bel Canto, by Ann PatchettRead about another entry on the list.
Most bottle novels have limited characters to suit their limited settings, but Patchett goes in the other direction, setting her story almost entirely in the large home of the vice president of an unnamed South American country as an entire party of guests is taken hostage and held captive, allowing the author to explore the relationships between them in intense detail as they struggle through a terrible situation. Although the story does leave the house eventually, the main focus is how strangers can come together and form a community in a short time—including the terrorists who instigated the whole affair. The confined setting makes it one of Patchett’s most popular, powerful books.
Bel Canto is among Tatjana Soli's six favorite books that conjure exotic locales, Kathryn Williams's six top novels set in just one place, Dell Villa's top eight books to read when you’re in the mood to cry for days, John Mullen's ten best birthday parties in literature, and Joyce Hackett's top ten musical novels.
--Marshal Zeringue
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