‘Between the Worlds’ is a collection of short stories set in France and the Middle East – presumably these are the two worlds of the title. The stories are often, but not exclusively, written from a female character’s viewpoint or deal with the concerns of female characters. I had never read the author before, or even heard of her, although she is extremely well regarded in France.

I found these stories fascinating. There is a strange sense of timelessness about them, despite the fact that they talk about politics and the conditions of people’s lives (especially women’s) – perhaps this demonstrates the timelessness of aspects of the ‘Human condition’, in particular the oppression of women. Themes I found within the stories include ageing, friendship, living with war, living within families, tradition – gaining strength from it or rebelling against it.

I sometimes found it difficult to determine where or when the stories were set (some seemed to be contemporary and some could have been set at any time in the last 500 years!), but this didn’t diminish my enjoyment or their power. I found it refreshing not to have everything spelt out, and to be left wondering - about the identity of the author and the people she was writing about.

I would recommend this book to a friend.

Louise Bristow

Cairo-born Andrée Chedid has been a prolific, critically acclaimed writer in France for decades, but this is the first time a collection of her short stories has been published in Britain. The 25 pieces here are styled as brief, poetic snapshots, designed to encompass the "full range of human emotion".

Chedid is keen to open our eyes to the "suffering, the misery and the cruelty of the world": in stories such as "One Day . . . The Enemy" and "Death in Slow Motion", she paints graphic scenes from the Lebanese civil war. But in the same breath she carries a message of hope, even where, as in the case of "My Sudanese Lady", the tale ends in tragedy and loss. Chedid draws on a wealth of personal and collective experiences, from the horrors of war and its lasting traumatic impact to the subtle intimacies of human relationships experienced in sedentary everyday lives. Her characters are a healthy mix of refugees, economic migrants and "ordinary" people who have always belonged exactly where they are.

Although Chedid conjures up some striking images, her stories suffer from their brevity – a very rare thing. Many have a self-contained beauty and resonance, but overall it feels as if she is trying too hard to make a series of points, without allowing any of them proper development.

Mary Fitzgerald