Artist meets writer; young woman meets older man; daughter meets father. All these encounters are played out in the arresting conversations between the artist Ninar Esper (b. 1971) and the father she hardly knew, the Syrian- Lebanese poet Adonis (b. 1930). Esber passionately challenges Adonis on subjects ranging from fundamentalism to animal rights, from feminism to aesthetics; Adonis responds with amusement and judicious wisdom, not concealing the contradictions of a patriarchal humanist libertarian. On Esber's side, the poignancy of growing up without a father becomes a drama with Oedipal overtones. This intensely personal two-hander is at the same time representative of many contemporary displacements. Comparing their