A Pacific Grove woman’s stories of Middle Eastern lives are poignant, lively and now in one volume.

Not many Americans traveled to the Middle East in the late 1970s. Not many of those who did were young, curious women.

Margaret Kahn of Pacific Grove was a young academic when she arrived in Iran to teach. Her personal mission was to explore the culture of the Kurds.

In 1980, Kahn published a memoir of her time in Kurdistan, a people existing within four countries, among them Iran. Children of the Jinn: The Story of My Search for the Kurds and Their Country became a classic among Kurds.

Upon returning to the U.S., she started drafting short stories about the people she encountered during her journeys and in the U.S. Over the years, she published those stories in various magazines. Now they are gathered in one collection, Familiar Strangers: Stories from America and the Middle East published earlier this year.

Many of the stories are inspired by people Kahn met or situations she witnessed or heard about, but reworked with an artistic imagination. Kahn’s characters are family members who come to the U.S. with stories and memories, often so tragic that PTSD prevents them from assimilating, even within their own diaspora.

Old lives, from the Armenian genocide to a Kurdish refugee camp, make for generational conflicts with children who grow up American and wish their parents were more like other American parents. They are stories of separation and decisions that crush the soul, but are necessary in order to survive.

“Feast of Sacrifice” tells the story of a young Egyptian man, Ibrahim, who moves with his young wife to California. He gets a job in a prestigious company that can offer him a green card. Ibrahim becomes fascinated with the American way of life, from its cars to vending machines with snacks that help him extend his work hours. He is shocked when his wife tells him she is pregnant.

In “Understanding the Enemy” – the opening story in the collection – we meet an adult daughter of an Armenian mother, who struggles with her dual identity. The only language the women have in common is food.

The stories are lively, moving and colorful. Kahn is a sensitive observer of human behavior and a wonderful storyteller.

Familiar Strangers: Stories from America and the Middle East by Margaret Kahn. Author talk at 5-7pm Tuesday, Aug. 19. Creperie Cafe, 1123 Fremont Blvd., Seaside. Free. 901-3900.