Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out.

Bel Canto
Ann Patchett
Harper Collins

Loosely inspired by a real-life 1996 hostage taking in Lima, Peru, Patchett's novel takes place in an unnamed South American city.  A couple hundred diplomats, businessmen and foreign dignitaries have gathered to celebrate the birthday of a Japanese captain of industry.  The Japanese businessman, Katsumi Hokosawa, has been lured to the party by the promise of an appearance by Roxanne Coss, one of the world's best sopranos. 

As she finishes her last piece, the lights go out.  When power is restored, the room has been taken over by a group of young guerrillas.  They have come to kidnap the country's president only to belatedly realize that he has not attended the party.  To make a long, beautiful story short, the guerrillas release most of the hostages, but they keep the men and Roxane Coss.  Over the next few months, relationships develop between the captors and the hostages and even among the hostages themselves.  Roxane falls for the gentle, opera-loving Hokosawa and he, who has a wife and children back in Japan, lets it happen.

I'm not going to tell you more about this book as I don't want to spoil it for those of you who decide to read it for yourselves.  Like the operas it sometimes describes, the book is lyrical, lovely, emotional, and consuming.  Four soaring arias out of five.