I was positively mesmerized by this from the first page. The story concerns an international group of party-goers gathered in a unnamed fictional South American country to hear a star opera singer, Roxane Coss, singing in honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, head of a major Japanese corporation. They're taken hostage by a terrorist group who had hoped to kidnap the president of the country--who, as it happens, wasn't present because he couldn't miss his favorite soap opera.
After releases early on, a core group of 40 hostages remain for months--Roxane the only woman--along with the 18 terrorists. Besides the above, they include Gen Watanabe, a translator; Father Arguedas, a priest who refused to leave the hostages; and the Vice President, Ruben Iglesias, among others. I quickly came to care about those characters and their fates--even about some of the terrorists: especially the the two girl soldiers, Beatriz, who explores her faith, and Carmen, who finds love, as well as two young boys--Ismael, who teaches himself chess, and Cesar, who discovers a gift of singing.
The book is written in omniscient but Patchett doesn't let you keep your distance, and somehow I can't imagine this written any other way. Yes, there's more than a bit of Stockholm Syndrome to this tale but there's more to it--a startlingly warm and romantic book considering its subject. Yes, Roxane could be seen as Mary Sue--but the whole point of the gathering was her celebrity, her gift. Given that and her status as the only female hostage kept, one can forgive the author making so many around her more than a bit in love with her.
It might help that I'm an opera fan, because the ability of music to bond people of disparate backgrounds and different languages is definitely a major theme. After reading this I had an itch to listen again to Dvořák and Puccini.
