Roland Merullo

Roland Merullo has worn more than a few hats in his life. He spent time as a taxi driver. He worked as an office temp. For seven years, he even ran his own carpentry business. But no job was as precious to him as the one he finally chose to pursue—being a writer.

Roland’s most recent book, A Little Love Story, tells the story of Jake, who lost his fiancée on September 11th, and Janet, who has cystic fibrosis. Amidst tragedy, they find love. To create the tale, Roland drew from his own experience with CF. His oldest daughter, Alexandra, has the disease. “I write things that are close to my heart,” he says. “I tend to write from the middle of my bones.”

Alexandra was 3 ½ years old when she was diagnosed with CF. Roland talked to doctors and many others with CF, and soon, he began writing about it. One conversation struck him deeply. A woman with CF confided that she could handle the physical aspects of the disease, but it was the emotional struggles that affected her most. When she told boyfriends that she had cystic fibrosis, the relationship would end. “It was heartbreaking,” he said.

After their conversation, Roland walked away with a new view for his book. “I thought, what if there’s a guy who’s willing to deal with that—who’s willing to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to love this person anyway, and go through what we have to go through.’” With this thought, the love story between Janet and Jake came to life.

While his book is primarily a love story, Roland wanted to present a true depiction of life with CF. “I didn’t want to go lightly over it and say, ‘This really isn’t that bad. It’s a cute little illness that we cannot pay attention to.’ I know what real suffering they go through and did not want to turn my eyes, or the eyes of the reader, away from that.”

When A Little Love Story was finally released in August 2005, Booklist magazine reviewed it and wrote, “There is nothing little about this love story. It is big and heroic and beautiful and tragic. It is, quite utterly grand.”

Roland is proud of the attention that the book is drawing to CF. “I’m not tremendously wealthy. I wish I were; I would give $10 million [to the CF Foundation]. And I’m not a scientist. If I were a scientist, I’d do research on CF. But I am a writer, and I do what I can.”

Posted 02/07/07

back to top