In the Shade of the Terebinth: Tales of a Night Journey

Casual readers, browsing the pages of this volume, can hardly be blamed for wondering what sort of book it is. IN THE SHADE OF THE TEREBINTH appears to be a collection of short stories. But, that's not quite correct. In fact, it is a novel. A certifiably odd variety of the species, but a novel. Despite its thirteen tales and a cast of a hundred subplots, IN THE SHADE OF THE TEREBINTH tells just one story really: the story of a love which cannot be stopped.As for the "night journey" of the subtitle, the reader will recall the mystical journeys of biblical figures, or, for that matter, the tradition of Mohammed's nocturnal ascent through the heavens. But the attentive reader will also be reminded that all true stories are journeys and that all true journeys are occasions for disclosure; that the journey undertaken in darkness - even by way of a book - is often the occasion for the revelation of the greatest of all mysteries: the mystery of identity. Gabriel Meyer was born in Los Angeles in 1947. He studied piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Converting to Catholicism in 1956, he devoted his energies to various lay apostolates and an inter-denominational Christian community City of the Lord, which he helped found. A resident of Jerusalem for nearly six years, he became the Middle East correspondent for the National Catholic Register in 1986, with a focus on the indigenous churches of that region. Meyer reported extensively on religious and cultural issues in Israel, Turkey, and Egypt. His coverage of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, won him Catholic Press Association awards in 1989. And in 1991, he won a California Writers Club prize for poetry. Reassigned to Yugoslavia in 1989, Meyer chronicled the religious and ethnic tensions which led to the disintegration of the country and the outbreak of war. He returned to the U.S. in 1991, where he continues to write and edit for the National Catholic Register.