MAKING PEACE WITH THE MUSLIMS

Gabriel makes his promising debut with this collection of stories about misunderstandings between Westerners and Mideastern Muslims. In the opening story, "Nicati Bey," an elderly Turkish artist in Ankara grudgingly welcomes an overly friendly American businessman into his life, telling him about his youth over tea and games of backgammon. Yet when the American gives him an exquisite antique copper bowl as a gift, the innocent gesture causes a cultural misunderstanding and a deep, irreparable rift. Two women from vastly different backgrounds develop a strong bond in "The Blind Woman," which follows a nurse from Nebraska offering hospice care to the cancer-stricken matriarch of an African Muslim family. A wicked surprise surfaces in Gabriel's prickly story, "The Kapici's Wife," in which a disillusioned Turkish diplomat, having returned to Istanbul, ponders blackmailing a married woman into his bed by threatening to reveal her wanton past. A sinister battle of wills ensues with results that surprise even the diplomat. In the title story, Raf, an American Jewish writer, falls in love with a young Palestinian woman and learns firsthand about the difficulties of everyday life in Ramallah. Gabriel is occasionally too blunt, but far less so than one would expect given these potentially stilted setups. Instead, his skillful characterizations, convincing dialogue and rich details make this a worthwhile, entertaining collection. (Dec.)