The Blind Woman and Other Stories

I am pleased to announce the publication of this book of short stories by Latah Books.  Latah Books is a new publishing house co-founded by my friend and colleague, Jon Gosch, to publish quality work from authors in the Pacific Northwest.

I initially wrote these stories between 1987 and 2000; I’ve revised them over the last two decades.  They take place all over the world, but their first inspirations grew from incidents and experiences during the research-years that Gail and I spent in Turkey and the Middle East.

While I am an author predominantly known in the nonfiction fields of Psychology, Education, Parenting, and Business (if I am known at all!) I also cherish the craft of writing novels, poetry, and short stories.  Each form has its unique challenges and joys; each story grows from the life of the soul.

I hope you enjoy and are moved by these stories as much as I have enjoyed—and at times been shattered and reborn—by the process of writing them.

Here is more from the book jacket.

–Michael Gurian, 2018

“(Gurian’s) skillful characterizations, convincing dialogue and rich details make this a worthwhile, entertaining collection.”

— Publisher’s Weekly

“Timely … a fascinating look into a world that remains impossibly foreign and opaque to most Americans.”

— Kirkus Reviews

Book Jacket Description

In this dramatic and profound collection of stories, New York Times bestselling author Michael Gurian explores the cultural and spiritual gulf between Muslims and Westerners.  From Ankara to Seattle, the West Bank to Manhattan, these provocative stories continually surprise with scenes of shocking brutality and improbable enlightenment.

In “A Desperate Pride,” a Palestinian woman falls in love with Raf Horowitz, an American Jew who arrives in Israel with reckless idealism.  In “The Reincarnation of Donaldo Fuertes,” an elderly writer recruits a young African-American Muslim to accompany him on a pilgrimage to his homeland.  And in the title story, a young hospice nurse finds her life course completely changed as she fulfills her duties to a Somali woman scarred by her upbringing.

Written with the grace and craftsmanship of a veteran storyteller, Gurian’s collection is an emotional powerhouse filled with animosity and love, heartache and understanding, disillusionment and hope.  Lyrical and absorbing, these stories reveal the humanity of a culture so often in conflict with our own.

The Stories

In “The Blind Woman,” a young hospice nurse finds her life course completely changed as she fulfills her duties to an African Muslim family.

In “Necati Bey,” an American businessman in Turkey is mentored, then strangely rejected, by an elderly Turkish artisan.

In “A Desperate Pride,” a Palestinian woman falls in love with Raf Horowitz, an American Jew who left behind his life in America to make a perilous pilgrimage to Israel.

In “The Kapici’s Wife,” a Turkish diplomat, returning to Ankara after years in America, meets again a woman from his adolescence and realizes how removed he has become from his native culture.

In “Irina’s Lullaby,” a young Frenchwoman married to an Algerian tries to reconcile her passion for the future with her feelings for her past.

In “The Reincarnation of Donaldo Fuertes,” an elderly Spanish immigrant recruits a young African-American Muslim to accompany him on a pilgrimage to his homeland.

In “Civilizations are Islands,” a young girl, half-American, half-Egyptian, struggles with her sense of identity and self when she moves with her mother from India back to Egypt.

More Praise for the Book

“Translucent stories! Courageous! While the rest of the world is (at war) with the Muslims, Michael Gurian is calling for something higher, better, the kind of peace that only a first-rate storyteller can imagine. Buy these stories! Read them! Read them again! Give them to your grandchildren, if you have them. If not, hold onto them until you do.”

— Jim Connor, Ph.D., author of Silent Fire

“We could not ask for a more important, true or better book about the ‘politics’ of our world and, far more important, about the truths hidden in the human soul than we find in The Blind Woman and Other Stories.”

— Terry Trueman, Prinz Honor Winner for Stuck in Neutral

“These stories immerse us in the mysteries that attract us to, and repel us from, foreign cultures. These are very important narratives for our time. In them, individuals of various ages, genders and faiths reveal how culture can save us or fail us, at times simultaneously. I saw these stories as a narrative bracelet which, once put on, cannot be turned away from. Their beauty and unsentimental power are stunning.”

— Michael B. Herzog, Ph.D., author of Troilus and Criseyde

MICHAEL GURIAN is a New York Times best-selling author of thirty two books, including The Wonder of Boys, The Wonder of Girls, and What Could He Be Thinking? He has been featured multiple times in nearly all the major media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, The Today Show, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, The 700 Club, and many others.