On the surface, LUNCH WITH BUDDHA is a story about family. Otto Ringling and his sister Cecelia could not be more different. He's just turned 50, an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a man with a nice home in the suburbs, children he adores, and a sense of himself as being a mainstream, upper-middle-class American. Cecelia is the last thing from mainstream. For two decades she's made a living reading palms and performing past-life regressions. She believes firmly in our ability to communicate with those who have passed on. It will turn out, though, that they have more in common than just their North Dakota roots. In LUNCH WITH BUDDHA, when Otto faces what might be the greatest of life's difficulties, it is Cecelia who knows how to help him. As she did years earlier in this book's predecessor, BREAKFAST WITH BUDDHA, she arranges for her brother to travel with Volya Rinpoche, a famous spiritual teacher - who now also happens to be her husband. After early chapters in which the family gathers for an important event, the novel portrays a road trip made by Otto and Rinpoche, in a rattling pickup, from Seattle to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way the brothers-in-law have a series of experiences - some hilarious, some poignant - all aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind. They visit American landmarks; they have a variety of meals, both excellent and awful; they meet a cast of minor characters, each of whom enables Rinpoche to impart some new spiritual lesson. Their conversations range from questions about life and death to talk of history, marijuana, child-rearing, sexuality, Native Americans, and outdoor swimming. In the end, with the help of their miraculous daughter, Shelsa, and the prodding of Otto's own almost-adult children, Rinpoche and Cecelia push this decent, middle-of-the-road American into a more profound understanding of the purpose of his life. His sense of the line between possible and impossible is altered, and the story's ending points him toward a very different way of being in this world.

lf life is a journey-with detours, paths from which to choose, and myriad roadblocks to overcome-then Otto Ringling is most certainly on the journey of a lifetime. The first fifty or so years of his journey were pretty good. He felt that he had it all, until one day he didn't. Looking for answers, he calls on his brother-in-law, Volya Rinpoche, a wise man and spiritual leader. A man who accepts the world as it comes to him; a man without pride or vanity. Someone who, as it turns out, is experiencing his own time of doubt. So, in hopes of finding answers to life's mysteries, the two embark on a journey through America, a road trip that becomes a lesson in love and gratitude.

From the bestselling author of From These Broken Streets comes a sweeping novel of love, resistance, and courage set against the backdrop of WWII Italy. Italy, 1943. The seeds of terror planted by Hitler have brought Allied forces to Italian soil. Young lovers separated by war-one near a Tuscan hill town, the other a soldier on the Sicilian front-will meet any challenge to reunite. Vittoria SanAntonio, the daughter of a prosperous vineyard owner, is caught in a web of family secrets. Defying her domineering father, she has fallen for humble vineyard keeper Carlo Conte. When Carlo is conscripted into Mussolini's army, it sets a fire in Vittoria, and she joins the resistance. As the Nazi war machine encroaches, Vittoria is drawn into dangers as unknowable as those faced by the man she loves. Badly wounded on the first day of the invasion, Carlo regains consciousness on a farm in Sicily. Nursed back to health by a kind family there, he embarks on an arduous journey north through his ravaged homeland. For Carlo and Vittoria, as wartime threats mount and their paths diverge, what lies ahead will test their courage as never before.

The only thing certain about a journey is that it has a beginning and an end--for you never know what may happen along the way. And so it is with this journey into the minds and souls of two very different men--one of them in search of the truth, the other a man who may have already found it.When Otto Ringling, a husband, father, and editor, departs on a cross-country drive from his home in a New York City suburb to the North Dakota farmhouse in which he grew up, he is a man on a no-nonsense mission: to settle the estate of his recently deceased parents. However, when his flaky sister convinces him to give a ride to her guru, a crimson-robed Skovordinian monk, Otto knows there will be a few bumps in the road. As they venture across America, Otto and the affable, wise, irritating, and inscrutible holy man engage in a battle of wits and wisdom. Otto, a born skeptic, sees his unwanted passenger as a challenge: a man who assumes the knowledge of the ages yet walks a mortal's path. But he also sees their unexpected pairing as an opportunity to take Volya Rinpoche on a journey of cultural discovery, with visits to quintessentially American landmarks (the Hershey's factory, Wrigley Field) and forays into some favorite American pastimes (bowling, miniature golf, dining out).It is Otto, however, who has embarked on the real journey, that of self-discovery, led by his strange and remarkable passenger. By the time they reach North Dakota, Otto's head is reeling with the understanding that so much of what he had believed--as well as so much of what he had doubted--must be rethought before his journey can truly begin.Witty and inventive, "Breakfast with Buddha" takes readers into the heart ofAmerica and in the process shows us a man about to discover his own true heart.

On the surface, LUNCH WITH BUDDHA is a story about family. Otto Ringling and his sister Cecelia could not be more different. He's just turned 50, an editor of food books at a prestigious New York publishing house, a man with a nice home in the suburbs, children he adores, and a sense of himself as being a mainstream, upper-middle-class American. Cecelia is the last thing from mainstream. For two decades she's made a living reading palms and performing past-life regressions. She believes firmly in our ability to communicate with those who have passed on. It will turn out, though, that they have more in common than just their North Dakota roots. In LUNCH WITH BUDDHA, when Otto faces what might be the greatest of life's difficulties, it is Cecelia who knows how to help him. As she did years earlier in this book's predecessor, BREAKFAST WITH BUDDHA, she arranges for her brother to travel with Volya Rinpoche, a famous spiritual teacher - who now also happens to be her husband. After early chapters in which the family gathers for an important event, the novel portrays a road trip made by Otto and Rinpoche, in a rattling pickup, from Seattle to the family farm in North Dakota. Along the way the brothers-in-law have a series of experiences - some hilarious, some poignant - all aimed at bringing Otto a deeper peace of mind. They visit American landmarks; they have a variety of meals, both excellent and awful; they meet a cast of minor characters, each of whom enables Rinpoche to impart some new spiritual lesson. Their conversations range from questions about life and death to talk of history, marijuana, child-rearing, sexuality, Native Americans, and outdoor swimming. In the end, with the help of their miraculous daughter, Shelsa, and the prodding of Otto's own almost-adult children, Rinpoche and Cecelia push this decent, middle-of-the-road American into a more profound understanding of the purpose of his life. His sense of the line between possible and impossible is altered, and the story's ending points him toward a very different way of being in this world.

From the Author's Preface: During the ten years I taught in college, and the numerous writing conferences and workshops I have been a part of since then, I've heard volumes of advice about the technical aspects of writing. Plot, character, pace, description, dialogue, theme, metaphor, symbolism, and so on. In the conferences especially, there has been a lot of good practical information about finding an agent, attracting a publisher, self-publishing, e-publishing, and marketing a book once it is in print. All this is very good, helpful, and necessary. For high school and college writers, the technical material is useful; for those writing a book or hoping to make a career in the world of words, the practical material can provide a clear understanding of the publishing landscape. But again and again in those classrooms and workshops, I was struck by the fact that very little was being said about what might be called the emotional or psychological aspects of the writing process. Over the course of thirty years in the profession, thirteen book publications, and several hundred articles, reviews, Op-Ed pieces, travel essays, food essays, personal essays, political analysis, profiles, and thanks to countless conversations with writers - some famous, some widely published and admired, some struggling to finish a first book or find an agent, and some simply hoping to earn a good grade on a college assignment - I know how critical that interior dimension of the writing life is. In this book I hope to shed some light on that dimension of the work, not as a psychiatrist or counselor, but as an author, because I am sure that writing success - however that term is defined for the individual writer - always has its roots in the soil of the psychological/emotional world. From chapters entitled "Writer's Block" to "Finding A Mentor" to "Impatience and Rejection," Merullo covers these topics with the insight, empathy and encouragement of an author who has "been there." Demons of the Blank Page is a no-nonsense handbook and guide for aspiring and established writers alike. Merullo's work has been hailed "happily inventive, precise and musical" by The Boston Globe and "emotionally complex, politically intelligent, and] beautifully written" by Kirkus Reviews.

A hilarious account of one absolutely disastrous Italian vacation, a story full of illness and good food, cold houses and warm people, bad decisions, marital spats, and family love. True in every detail, it is the tale of a trip award-winning author Roland Merullo made with his wife of many years, their two young children, and his brave octogenarian mother in an attempt to escape the New England winter and enjoy Italian cuisine, architecture, warm weather, and each other. Shortly after arriving at their rental house north of Rome, however, the Merullo family finds itself neck-deep in a swamp of misfortune. A stomach flu takes hold of their younger daughter and will not let go. The house is freezing cold, isolated, and patrolled by a pack of pesky mongrels. Hoping to escape the situation, the family heads south on a 500 mile drive, only to encounter, among a cast of eccentric characters, more bad luck. Their ability to cope - sometimes - and laugh - afterwards - forms the heart of Taking the Kids to Italy.

Leaving Losapas begins on a tiny atoll in the equatorial Pacific. Leo Markin, a young US Marine and Vietnam combat veteran who survived the war, found himself so changed by the experience that he simply could not find a way to return to his home, family, and his fiancee in a working class city of his birth outside of Boston. The islanders in Losapas are kind to him-he had been living there for years-and he had found a woman he came to love. Various events conspire to convince him to return to America, but on his return home he feels lost. He has troubling encounters with his aging father, finds that his fiancee has married another man and appears trapped in an abusive relationship, and his old friends seem like strangers to him. Leo is torn between the peaceful, natural way of life on the island, and the rougher rules of his upbringing. In the end, though he has sworn to turn his back on physical violence, it is an act of physical violence that convinces him the only place he can live is Losapas. When his father suddenly dies, Leo decides to leave the house he inherits to his former fiancee-thus encouraging her to leave her husband-and he returns to the life he left behind and to his island lover. Boston Magazine called Leaving Losapas a "great surprising book...the best novel of the year..." and The Rocky Mountain News said "it's a wondrous, spiritually rich story...Merullo has created something of beauty...Leaving Losapas will linger in your mind long after you close its pages."

Most avid golfers believe that there is a profound connection between the joys and challenges of golf and the joys and challenges of living - that the more devoted we are to the game, the more we learn about ourselves. In Passion for Golf, Roland Merullo looks carefully at those connections and at the reasons why people find themselves irresistibly attracted to golf. Drawing on the triumphs and travails of playing partners, friends, and family members, and mixing in anecdotes from his own adventures on and off the course, Merullo explores the notion of a 'true goal of golf, ' a hidden attraction that, ultimately, has more to do with deep peace and satisfaction than with the dream of playing on the PGA tour. He finds connections between fairway lessons and the mystical wisdom of Lao Tzu, Theresa of Avila, Thoreau, Jesus, Buddha, and Walt Whitman, among many others, and looks into the role of ego, anger, and silence in golf and life. More than anything else, Passion for Golf is a celebration of the game, an examination of the roots of our passion for it, and a meditation on the lessons every golfer carries away from the course and into his or her life. Publishers Weekly wrote, "For average hackers who struggle weekly to lower their scores, this slender, accessible guide offers insight into the emotional stumbling blocks that get in the way of improvement and, most importantly, enjoyment of the game... Readers who enjoyed Michael Murphy's Zen of golf classic, Golf in the Kingdom, should have room for this spiritual journey in their Christmas stocking. And, The Washington Post stated ..".Merullo provides more than enough food for thought for even the most contemplative golfer."

Two weeks before the failed right-wing coup of August 1991, Anton Czesich, an American in his late forties who has spent a mostly disillusioning career working overseas for the U.S. government, arrives in Moscow to take charge of a volatile American food distribution program-a program administered by Julie Stirvin, the love of his youth. She and Czesich have their own history, their own protracted cold war. Many miles away, in the mining center of Vostok, Soviet bureaucrat Serghei Propenko, a former champion boxer, is in the midst of his own midlife crisis-partly personal, partly political. Modest and decent, surrounded by a household of strong-willed and politically astute women, Propenko is pinched between his traditional ambitions and concern for his very untraditional daughter, Lydia. As Czesich's and Propenko's fates intersect, it becomes clear that both men are partially paralyzed by the same suspicions and fears that crippled Soviet-American relations for so long. A Russian Requiem is a page-turner with depth, a finely crafted novel about the small piece of history each of us bears and the way our intimate lives reflect and echo in the politics of nations. Speckled with humor and irony, rich in both psychological and political drama, it carries the reader on a post-cold war voyage through the Russian-and American-soul.

A novel both literary and suspenseful, Revere Beach Boulevard tells the story of a family that rallies around an errant son, even as a long-hidden secret that has touched all their lives comes to the surface. Peter Imbesalacqua has bent the rules and battled a gambling addiction for most of his adult life. Now, his real-estate business in shambles and his life in danger because of an unpaid debt, he spins at the center of a hurricane of love and risk. His parents, sister, and friends, all carrying their own secrets, find themselves drawn into the terrifying storm, each trying to do for Peter what he must ultimately do - or fail to do - for himself. Revere Beach Boulevard is a rich and heartfelt novel that looks deeply into the secret places in men's and women's hearts, places only great fiction can reveal.The Boston Globe selected Revere Beach Boulevard as one of its Top 100 Essential New England Books and author Richard Russo called it ..".a great novel - ambitious, heartfelt and oh-so skilled."

In Revere Beach Elegy, Roland Merullo, author of ten novels, including Breakfast with Buddha, and three other books of nonfiction, reflects on family, friends and a series of experiences that include a stint in the Peace Corps, service in the former Soviet Union, and excursions to Europe. The author shares his spiritual, intellectual and emotional discoveries along the way, writing about his relationship with his father, his working class upbringing and upper class education, the early years of his marriage, and the gift of children. From a severe eye injury and a broken back, to the joys of Italian travel and friendship, from poverty to abundance, adolescence to middle age, Merullo paints a life that is rich with adventure and insight. Michael Upchurch of The Seattle Times said, "Revere Beach Elegy is an autobiography in ten essays that is sublimely refreshing it its love and generosity. Merullo's prose, as he outlines the worlds he cherishes, has a luminous subtlety that brings alive rich layers of feeling in an immediate intelligible manner. His eye stays intently trained on how we guide ourselves through life."

Herman "Hank" Fins-Winston was a pro golfer destined for greatness. Now he lives in a condominium on the thirteenth fairway of one of heaven's glorious courses - a fact he finds surprising and amusing, since for one reason or another, a fair percentage of golfers never make it to paradise. Hank is having the time of his afterlife until he's summoned one idyllic morning to play a round with the Almighty. It seems that God is having some trouble with His game. As they play the heavenly courses, both in paradise and back on earth, Hank comes to realize that what began as a golf lesson has become a spiritual journey.