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The Diamond Setter
  • Published: 29 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781635425963
  • Imprint: Other Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $38.00

The Diamond Setter

A Novel

Formats & editions
Paperback
29 Sept 2026
Paperback
15 Apr 2018
EBook
1 Sept 2026
EBook
20 Mar 2018
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Inspired by true events, this best-selling Israeli novel traces a complex web of love triangles and family secrets across generations and borders.

The uneventful life of a jeweler from Tel Aviv changes abruptly after Fareed, a handsome young man from Damascus, crosses illegally into Israel and makes his way to the ancient port city of Jaffa in search of his roots. In his pocket is a piece of a famous blue diamond known as Sabakh. Intending to return the diamond to its rightful owner, Fareed is soon swept up in Tel Aviv’s vibrant gay scene, and a turbulent protest movement. He falls in love with an Israeli soldier and his boyfriend, the narrator of this book. We learn the story of his family’s past—a tale of forbidden love beginning in the 1930s—and what connects Fareed and the jeweler.

The Diamond Setter ties present-day events to a forgotten time before the creation of the State of Israel. Moshe Sakal’s poignant mosaic of characters, locales, and cultures allows us to imagine the Middle East beyond its conflicts.
  • Published: 29 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781635425963
  • Imprint: Other Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $38.00
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About the author

Moshe Sakal

Moshe Sakal was born in Tel Aviv in 1976 into a Jewish-Arab family with roots in Damascus and Cairo, descendants of Damascene jewelers. He lived for several years in Paris and has been based in Berlin since 2019. He is the author of six novels in Hebrew, including The Diamond Setter and Yolanda. His work has been translated into English, French, and German. His fiction explores exile, diaspora, queer identity, and the shared Arab-Jewish world before 1948. Sakal is the cofounder of Altneuland Press, the first Hebrew literary publisher established outside of Israel since 1948. He is a regular contributor to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and has also written for Le Monde, Libération, and Haaretz. A two-time nominee for the Sapir Prize, recipient of Israel’s Levi Eshkol Prize, Fulbright Scholar, and Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, Sakal was awarded the Berlin Senate Grant for Non-German Literature in 2021.
portrait photo of Moshe Sakal

Praise for The Diamond Setter

“Richly evocative.” —Booklist

“A kaleidoscopic journey into the Middle East of the present and the not-so-distant past…As the mystery of the diamond unfolds, characters’ paths cross in unexpected ways—reminding the reader that we are all, in some way or another, connected.” —Kirkus Reviews