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--hard-working, 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 his family's help, he 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. For Peter it means having the courage to stand up to Eddie Crevine, a Mafia thug to whom he is in debt and who now threatens his life. For Peter's sister, Joanna, it means admitting that she shares some of her brother's anger at their parents. For Vito and his wife, Lucy, it involves dealing with the aftereffects of a youthful indiscretion, a moment of unchecked passion that changed all of their lives in ways that can never be undone. Revere Beach Boulevard is a rich and heartfelt novel that looks deeply into the secret places in men and women's hearts, places only great fiction can reveal.
Roland Merullo was born in Boston and raised in the working-class city of Revere, Massachusetts. He had a scholarship to Exeter Academy and graduated in 1971, attended Boston University for two years, transferred to Brown and graduated from Brown in 1975, then earned a Master's there--in Russian Studies-- in 1976. Roland has published ten novels and four books of non-fiction, and given talks at hundreds of universities, schools, bookstores, and other venues. He currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife Amanda and their two daughters and can be reached via his website: RolandMerullo.com.
His best-selling novel, Breakfast with Buddha, recently went into its 11th printing. Like Golfing with God before it, and American Savior after it, Breakfast with Buddha treats questions of philosophy/spirituality from a multi-denominational viewpoint and with a healthy dose of humor. The novel is provocative, not irreverent, and it has become a favorite with book clubs all over the country. It was based on an actual trip Merullo took from New York to North Dakota, most of it in the company of his wife and daughters. Golfing with God has just been optioned for film by Gemfilms.
His new book, The Talk-Funny Girl, is the story of a teenage girl in rural New Hampshire who escapes an abusive home life in a most unusual way. It follows a theme that can be found in almost all Merullo's books: a person overcoming some past trauma, whether that be the stress of war, illness, divorce, addiction, or early abuse.
Several old favorites--Leaving Losapas, A Russian Requiem, Revere Beach Boulevard, and Revere Beach Elegy, have just been reissued from AJAR Publications, in print form and as e-books. AJAR has also brought out Roland's small book of writing advice, Demons of the Blank Page.
GOLF WRITING
Merullo has a side-speciality, golf writing. His articles and columns appear frequently in Golf World Magazine, and his golf books include GOLFING WITH GOD, THE ITALIAN SUMMER, AND PASSION FOR GOLF.
