"This anthology brings together an international selection of short stories by distinguished modern writers from five continents (America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe). The fifteen stories collected here were all written in English within the last fifty years. Each has something to say about cultural encounters, often arising from experiences of migration or uprooting. In tone and mood the stories are as varied as in their geographical settings - their predominantly realist temper promotes vivid, imaginative connections between the worlds of fiction and the worlds of its readers. The book's theme of 'difference' is echoed in the diversity of writers represented: Nobel Laureates (Nadine Gordimer, V.S. Naipaul); masters of the short story (Raymond Carver, Mavis Gallant, William Trevor); and a younger generation of late twentieth-century writers on their way to establishing international reputations (Ana Menendez, Zadie Smith). Each story is introduced by a photographic and biographic portrait of its author".