In her sumptuous new collection of stories, I Think of You, Ahdaf Soueif details the lives of a series of Arab women as they traverse the cultural line that divides East from West. The heroines of Soueif’s fiction range from young girls to mature women, each one linked by the difficulties of moving between two very different cultural environments. Additionally, each must deal with daily confrontations between the known and the unknown, modernity and tradition, and youthful freedom and parental rule. Wandering through various locales across continents and oceans, from Egypt to London to Japan and back again, the stories in Soueif’s collection merge into one cohesive unit, grounded by cultural juxtapositions. These interesting, down-to-earth tales benefit from an appealing, sometimes exotic backdrop and realistic touches, indicating an author, who, despite her adeptness at writing about the problems of living in two worlds, is comfortable in a variety of surroundings.

The first three stories detail the life of Aisha, an Egyptian-born Muslim girl who moves to London with her academic parents during the mid 1960s. From the moment she moves into the row house in Clapham, Aisha encounters a culture of preening, blond school girls, teddy boys and rock and roll. Yearning to embrace this new culture, she is all but forbidden to assimilate by her well-meaning but strict, traditional parents. As she grows from a schoolgirl to a young woman, Aisha creates a niche in which to exist that is all her own, a unique haven that comprises elements of her parents and the place they left, the remnants of swinging London and, most importantly, the force of nature that is Aisha herself. Aisha’s story is moving, realistically created and achingly eloquent, an indicator of the intrigue that is to follow in the rest of this tightly woven collection.

Soueif’s 1999 novel, The Map of Love, was an acclaimed best-seller, establishing her as one of the most promising young Arab writers in today’s competitive market. I Think of You, with its enjoyable pacing and fascinating explorations into culture, politics and gender, is yet another indication of her talent and promise.