From the Bookshelf of Appomattox Regional Library System…

[close] The world’s most beloved soprano has just finished singing at a private party for a Japanese businessman at an unnamed South American country’s vice president’s home. The lights go out as she finishes singing, cheering and praises ring out…and with a crash, the party is over when the house is taken by terrorists looking for the president to take hostage. The president, not in attendance at the party, is at home watching TV, while members of his government, foreign business people, entertainers, house staff, and his countrymen are subjected to weeks of being held hostage. But what happens over the course of those next weeks is unexpected. Friendships begin to form…relationships…people learn to communicate with others of a different language…and all the while both sides try to keep in contact with an outside world who is slowly forgetting about them.
An incredibly well-written and intriguing novel by Ann Patchett, with a storyline that is constantly taking the reader in directions that he/she does not expect to go. Instead of a terrifying, action-packed, violence-ridden plot, it is instead a story of how people in the most unlikely of circumstances strive to learn about each other and get along, despite their conditions. It will keep you guessing to the very end, which is a finale as unforeseen as the rest of the story.