Egypt-Born Writer Chedid Dies in Paris

The Egyptian-born poet and novelist Andree Chedid, the grandmother of French rock singer Matthieu Chedid, died in Paris on Sunday aged 90, her publisher Flammarion said.

She was born into a Lebanese Christian family in Cairo in 1920 and was educated in Egypt and Paris before taking a degree in journalism at the American University in Cairo.

Chedid moved to Paris in 1946 and became a French citizen. Her first book was written in English but she later switched to French to pen her novels, whose stories move between France and the Middle East.

She published 22 volumes of poetry, 16 novels, seven plays and numerous short stories, according to the website of the International PEN writers' organization.

Two of her novels were made into award-winning films: "Le sixieme jour" in 1986 by Youssef Chahine, and "L'autre" by Bernard Giraudeau in 1991.