The Diamond Setter by Moshe Sakal

The Diamond Setter by Moshe Sakal

In this revised edition of a novel of exile, inheritance, and return, the fates of two families--one Palestinian, one Jewish--intertwine across generations and borders.

In 2011, Fareed Jabbali, a young Palestinian from Damascus, crosses the border into Israel and makes his way to the ancient port city of Jaffa, in search of his grandparents' lost homeland. He carries in his pocket a rare blue diamond--once a gift to a celebrated chanteuse who sang for the Ottoman sultan--and intends to return it to its rightful owners. More than a relic, the stone is an unsettled debt between two families, waiting to be claimed.

In Tel Aviv, Menashe Salomon, a Jewish jeweler born in 1949 to a family of Damascene jewelers, runs a modest shop, unaware that a long-lost piece of his family's past is about to resurface. His mother, Adela, once lived in Damascus, where she fell in love with a Palestinian woman, Laila Jabbali--Fareed's grandmother. As Menashe and Fareed's paths converge, they confront a question that lingers over the novel: Can what was lost ever truly be restored?

A mosaic of characters and cities--Damascus, Jaffa, Beirut, Tel Aviv--The Diamond Setter bears witness to the Arab-Jewish world destroyed in 1948 and to the long shadow of the Nakba. Now revised with a new preface, this edition recenters the novel on the Palestinian journey of return and on the vanished Levantine world the twentieth century erased.

Moshe Sakal is the author of five Hebrew novels, including the best-selling novel Yolanda, which was shortlisted for the Sapir Prize (the Israeli Booker) in 2011. Sakal was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow in Writing by the University of Iowa, the Eshkol prize for his work, and a Fulbright grant (the America-Israel Education Trust). He has published essays and opinion pieces in several major Israeli outlets including Ha'aretz as well as in Le Monde (France) and Forward (USA). His novel, Sister, was published in Israel in May 2016 and was longlisted for the Sapir prize. Fluent in three languages, Sakal studied and worked in France between 2000 and 2006. Until recently, he headed the Literary Division of the Israeli Center for Books and Libraries.

Jessica Cohen is a freelance translator born in England, raised in Israel, and living in Denver. She translates contemporary Israeli prose, poetry, and other creative work. Her translations include David Grossman's critically acclaimed A Horse Walks into a Bar (winner of the 2017 Man Booker International Prize), and works by major Israeli writers including Etgar Keret, Rutu Modan, Dorit Rabinyan and Ronit Matalon, as well as Golden Globe-winning director Ari Folman. She is a past board member of the American Literary Translators Association and has served as a judge for the National Translation Award.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781590518915
ISBN 10	1590518918
Title	The Diamond Setter
Author	Moshe Sakal
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Other Press LLC
Year published	2018-03-20
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.