Parallels and Paradoxes

These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues are an exchange between two prominent figures in contemporary culture: Daniel Barenboim, internationally renowned conductor and pianist, and Edward W. Said, eminent literary critic and impassioned commentator on the Middle East. Barenboim is an Argentinian-Israeli and Said a Palestinian-American; they are also close friends. “[A] genuine give-and-take between keen minds and open hearts. . . . The fluidity of their relationship, like musicians in