Roland Merullo

The author traces his 2007 summer near the shore of Italy's Lake Como, where he played on several northern-region courses of distinction, shared lavish meals with his family, and interacted with a host of eccentric locals.

The American political system is thrown into a tizzy when Jesus appears and announces that he is planning to run for president, sending the two major party candidates and the world media into a last-ditch effort to discredit him.

When his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he'd planned. But in an effort to westernize his passenger—and amuse himself—he decides to show the monk some "American fun" along the way. From a chocolate factory in Hershey to a bowling alley in South Bend, from a Cubs game at Wrigley field to his family farm near Bismarck, Otto is given the remarkable opportunity to see his world—and more important, his life—through someone else's eyes. Gradually, skepticism yields to amazement as he realizes that his companion might just be the real thing.In Roland Merullo's masterful hands, Otto tells his story with all the wonder, bemusement, and wry humor of a man who unwittingly finds what he's missing in the most unexpected place.

At the behest of his sister, Otto Ringling finds himself reluctantly accompanying her guru, an enigmatic Mongolian monk, on a trip through Middle America to their childhood home, introducing his passenger to some American "fun" along the way.

In A Little Love Story, Roland Merullo--winner of the Massachusetts Book Award and the Maria Thomas Fiction Award--has created a sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious tale of attraction and loyalty, jealousy and grief. It is a classic love story--with some modern twists. Janet Rossi is very smart and unusually attractive, an aide to the governor of Massachusetts, but she suffers from an illness that makes her, as she puts it, "not exactly a good long-term investment." Jake Entwhistle is a few years older, a carpenter and portrait painter, smart and good-looking too, but with a shadow over his romantic history. After meeting by accident--literally--when Janet backs into Jake's antique truck, they begin a love affair marked by courage, humor, a deep and erotic intimacy . . . and modern complications. Working with the basic architecture of the love story genre, Merullo--a former carpenter known for his novels about family life--breaks new ground with a fresh look at modern romance, taking liberties with the classic design, adding original lines of friendship, spirituality, and laughter, and, of course, probing the mystery of love.From the Hardcover edition.

Herman Fins-Winston is summoned by God to help improve his putting game; but instead of teaching God about the game, it is Herman who learns important lessons.

"In Revere Beach Elegy, Roland Merullo returns to his childhood heaven of Revere, Massachusetts, to begin an intricate, impressionistic portrait of his rich and complex life. The tough codes of Revere's working-class streets mix with the warmth and affirmation of family - forty cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles - to form a background against which Merullo's later wanderings are always set."--BOOK JACKET.

"This is the story of the Benedetto family, hardworking Italian Americans from Revere, Massachusetts, a small city on the coastline just north of Boston. Anthony Benedetto is our narrator - introspective and colorful - a smart, good kid born in this country who is trying to figure out how to reconcile his family's rich, old-world heritage with the unstoppable freight train that is America and American culture.". "What Anthony creates for us is an unspoiled America of forty years ago: the feeling of being part of an extended family of grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins; the feeling of being surrounded by an intense loyalty and vibrant warmth that extend into the neighborhood and the community. Fixing place, time, and sensibilities with uncanny accuracy and grace, Anthony introduces us to unforgettable men and women who struggle toward decency and kindness, and who live out their difficult lives with an extraordinary dignity.". "When Anthony's parents are tragically killed, the Benedetto family pulls him out of the swamp of despair with a desperate, old-world love. As the New World calls to him, he gradually grows up and away from Revere but finds that it is as much a part of him as his eye color and the size of his hands. His eventual realizations - that geography is destiny, that suffering is universal, and that he is able to pass on, to his own children, the priceless Benedetto inheritance of warmth and caring - form the essence of who he becomes as a man."--BOOK JACKET.

Vittorio (Vito) and Peter Imbesalacqua, father and son, opposites in so many ways, have never had an easy time with each other. From the moment Vito arrived in the United States from Italy in 1936, he did his best to live as a good man - hardworking, deeply religious, frugal, and honest. Peter, on the other hand, now forty years old, his real-estate business in shambles, has bent the rules and battled a gambling addiction for most of his adult life. With the help of his TV-anchorwoman sister, his devoted girlfriend, his parents, and a police-captain best friend, he has always just succeeded in averting disaster ... until now. Revere Beach Boulevard - a novel both literary and suspenseful - tells the story of a family that rallies around an errant son, even as a dark secret that has blighted all their lives comes to the surface.

"Eight years after Breakfast with Buddha skeptic Otto Ringling and Mongolian monk Volya Rinpoche set off across America on another unexpected road trip of discovery--from Indian reservations and farming towns to Colorado's New Age culture and the nonspiritual streets of Las Vegas"--

Roland Merullo's playful, eloquent, and life-affirming novel finds the Pope and the Dalai Lama teaming up for an unsanctioned road trip through the Italian countryside to rediscover the everyday joys of life that can seem, even for the two holiest men in the world, unattainable. What happens when the Pope and the Dali Lama decide they need an undercover vacation? During a highly publicized official visit at the Vatican, the Pope suggests an adventure so unexpected and appealing that neither man can resist. Before dawn, two of the most beloved and famous people on the planet don disguises, slip into a waiting car, and experience the countryside as regular people. Along for the ride are the Pope's overwhelmed cousin Paolo and his estranged wife Rosa, an eccentric hairdresser with a lust for life who cannot resist the call to adventure--or the fun. Against a landscape of good humor, exploration and spiritual delight, not to mention the sublime rolling hills of Italy, The Delight of Being Ordinary showcases the charming sensibilities of Roland Merullo (whose bestselling Breakfast with Buddha has sold over 200,000 copies), in a novel that makes us laugh as well as think about the demands of ordinary life, spiritual life, and the identities by which we all define ourselves. --Amazon What happens when the Pope and the Dali Lama decide they need an undercover vacation? During a highly publicized official visit at the Vatican, the Pope suggests an adventure so unexpected and appealing that neither man can resist. Before dawn, two of the most beloved and famous people on the planet don disguises, slip into a waiting car, and experience the countryside as regular people. Along for the ride are the Pope's overwhelmed cousin Paolo and his estranged wife Rosa, an eccentric hairdresser with a lust for life who cannot resist the call to adventure-- or the fun.

Manifesting intense religious episodes after losing first her grandmother and then her priest friend, Cynthia becomes convinced that God intends for her to become Catholicism's first female priest and pursues her belief all the way to the Vatican.

Raised by parents so intentionally isolated that they speak their own hybrid dialect, abused youth Marjorie witnesses her parents' submission to a sadistic cult leader before she is rescued by another abuse survivor who teaches her stoneworking skills.

An ex-CIA agent is involved in a clandestine plot to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.