As the author of the "Calabrian Tales," Peter Chiarella recounts the history of his ancestral family through a series of stories chronicling the life of his great-aunt Marianna and the choices she made that led to his family’s immigration to the United States. Born into a life of poverty, Marianna chooses to climb Italy’s social ladder by becoming the mistress of a wealthy Italian aristocrat for whom her family worked. In a related story, the author’s grandfather, Angelo, is convicted of a crime he did not commit and sent to the island prison of Asinara, a stereotypical penal complex of the nineteenth century. <br/><br/>Chiarella’ <wbr/>s <wbr/> follow-up novel, "Out of Calabria," focuses on stories from his maternal side of the family. Stifled by the oppressive social customs of the time, the Zinzi sisters break free from their relatively privileged life and eventually leave Italy for the United States. Peter holds nothing back in his writing as he weaves themes of greed, pride, pain, and survival to paint an intimate family portrait, defining life in 19th century Calabria. <wbr/><br/> <wbr/><br/>Outside <wbr/>of his writing pursuits, Chiarella is the owner of Crane Family Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. He founded Crane Family Vineyards with his wife, Fran, in 1999 after other business brought him to Wine Country a decade before. Chiarella has built a solid reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality, award-winning wines. His vineyard, the Don Raffaele Estate, was named for his father, who first introduced him to winemaking. <wbr/><br/> <wbr/><br/>Chiarella <wbr/>grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, where he first heard the family stories that consequently shaped his life. Today, he resides in Napa, where he enjoys biking, wine tasting, writing, and reading the works of fellow Italian authors such as Gay Talese, Mario Puzo and Melania Mazzucco in his spare time.<br/>
