Bel Canto

Content Warning: The novel recounts a hostage situation with its accompanying psychological stress. It also contains scenes of graphic violence. The term “terrorist” is used throughout to describe the group that takes the hostages, following the author’s lead. The novel invokes stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, and their role as terrorists here is one of these stereotypes. The novel also refers to sexual harassment.

Roxanne Coss commands the household of hostages and terrorists alike with the mesmerizing quality of her voice. As described throughout the book, her singing is unparalleled, infused with beauty and longing and alternately portraying the triumph of the human spirit or the tragedy of great loss. These two diametrically opposed experiences animate the novel as a whole. She sings classical opera music, as a soprano of the highest order, and even those who have never heard such music before—the Indigenous terrorists, for example—are immediately captivated. If it is the music that has brought all of the people to the Vice President’s mansion in the first place, then it is the music that keeps them all in the mansion for months. In the process, the music breaks down the barriers between groups and creates a community wherein love, mutual understanding, and friendship can flourish.