Between East and West applies Sufi thought to some of Doris Lessing's novels and studies the manifestations of Sufi influence on Lessing. Various Sufi-like characters and their unconventional lifestyles are evaluated and explicated for Western readers unfamiliar with Sufism. This book also evaluates the role of spirituality in Lessing's work and considers the implications of taking Lessing's Sufism seriously when reading her works on when doing Lessing criticism.

It also impresses upon the reader the degree to which Lessing is seriously offering her space-fiction utopias as plausible and even necessary alternatives to our Western ways of life.