Daniel Barenboim's new book vividly describes his lifelong pursuit of knowledge and understanding, not only of music and of life, but of one through the other. As he himself says in the introduction, "This is not a book for musicians, nor is it one for non-musicians, but rather for the curious mind that wishes to discover the parallels between music and life and the wisdom that becomes audible to the thinking ear." Indeed, the topics covered in the book range from the problems of timing - whether in a piece of music or a political process - to the philosophy of Spinoza and its relevance to musical interpretation.