For Love of Piano and Friends intertwines stories of personal growth, triumph over tragic family histories, and the exploration of the burial linen & sudarium of Christ throughout history, as well as the Sacred Line of the Archangel – all in the context of the healing power of love, friendship and … classical piano.

Chiappelli’s novel explores personalities, friendships, triumphs and tragedies within the context of Christian narrative and lore.  Readers are invited to follow along with the characters as they travel from Europe to Asia to the Middle East as they chase both love and history.  Chiappelli skillfully weaves the individual stories together around these themes, informed by his knowledge, experience, and Franciscan spirituality.

About the Author

A secular Franciscan within the Roman Catholic Church, much of Francesco Chiappelli’s works reflect Franciscan spirituality. He is also a scientist and emeritus professor at UCLA, having worked in the Center for Health Sciences and published over 200 peer- reviewed scientific papers, in addition to chapters and books on topics as wide-ranging as biostatistics to molecular virology. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the few overseas Fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine and a Fulbright alumnus. He values science as the pursuit of our abilities to think and to reason, but believes that this ability is always secondary to our grace of faith; a person can be a good and sound scientist while remaining true and committed to putting Christ at the center of it all. He views our role as humble instruments to the greater glory of God through, in and with Christ – as majoram Dei gloriam – and thus, while having been a scientist all of his life, he has always tried to follow Christ’s teaching in Franciscan humility.