Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corporation’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn Siler brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family---and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
How did a family business, a billion-dollar enterprise such as the House of Mondavi, find itself open to a hostile takeover? Was it hubris, bad financial management, or a bit of both? Listening to Alan Sklar is always worthwhile, but with a story this fraught with biblical dimensions and Elizabethan complexities, he absolutely enthralls. Even with ambition, sibling rivalry, betrayal, and exile as staples of the story, Sklar doesn't overdramatize. His sensitive narration does more than air the family's wine-spotted linens in public. Thanks to Siler's meticulous research, through interviews with all principal family members, court documents, and depositions, and Sklar's vibrant performance, the story doesn't deteriorate into a soap opera. Instead it offers fascinating insights into a dysfunctional family and the wine-growing industry in Napa. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
Digital Rights Information
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
Burn to CD:
Permitted
Transfer to device:
Permitted
Transfer to Apple® device:
Permitted
Public performance:
Not permitted
File-sharing:
Not permitted
Peer-to-peer usage:
Not permitted
All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
OverDrive WMA Audiobook
Burn to CD:
Permitted
Transfer to device:
Permitted
Transfer to Apple® device:
Permitted
Public performance:
Not permitted
File-sharing:
Not permitted
Peer-to-peer usage:
Not permitted
All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
