Journalist Runo Isakson, confronting the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, found himself wondering: How can literature play a role in helping the one side to see the other? To answer this question, he interviewed fifteen pre-eminent Israeli and Palestinian writers, asking them what role literature may play in creating dialogue, ending war, building peace. The conversations that result are both deeply personal and deeply political, both reflective and urgent; they both complicate and clarify our understanding of the Israeli¬-Palestinian conflict.