Lunch with Buddha 

"In this engaging follow-up novel, Merullo takes readers on a spiritual road trip through the American West. . . . In Otto Ringling, Merullo offers a hero that’s a bit jaded but loving; a little lost but searching. One can’t help but root for Otto, despite—or perhaps because of—his curmudgeonly tendencies, and hope that he finds the inner peace that, even if he doesn’t quite know it, he desperately seeks. . . . a beautifully written and compelling story about a man’s search for meaning that earnestly and accessibly tackles some well-trodden but universal questions.

A quiet meditation on life, death, darkness and spirituality, sprinkled with humor, tenderness and stunning landscapes."

- Kirkus Starred Review 

 

Roland Merullo is an award-winning author of 14 books including 10 works of fiction. 

Breakfast with Buddha, a nominee for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, is now in its 13th printing.  The Talk Funny Girl was a 2012 ALEX Award Winner and named a “Must Read for 2012” by the Massachusetts Library Association and the Massachusetts Center for the Book; Revere Beach Boulevard was named one of the “Top 100 Essential Books of New England” by The Boston Globe, A Little Love Story was named one of “Ten Wonderful Romance Novels” by Good Housekeeping and Revere Beach Elegy won the Massachusetts Book Award for non fiction.

A former writer in residence at North Shore Community College and Miami Dade Colleges, Roland has been a guest speaker at many literary events and venues and a faculty member at MFA programs and several writers’ conferences. His essays have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Outside Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Newsweek, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Magazine, Reader's Digest, Good Housekeeping, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His books have been translated into German, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Croatian.

His work has been called “dazzling . . . thoughtful and elegant . . . lyrical yet tough-minded . . . beautifully written, quietly brilliant,” and “emotionally complex, politically intelligent — Among the best from a novelist in the classic American tradition” by Kirkus Review

The Chicago Tribune said, “Merullo has a knack for rendering emotional complexities, paradoxes, or impasses in a mere turn of the phrase.”  And, Michael Upchurch of The Seattle Times wrote, “Merullo’s prose has a luminous subtlety that brings alive rich layers of feeling in an immediate intelligible manner.”