Antwerp, the seventies. Young Bennie Goodman can’t stand the contempt that clings to his family. One day, he swears, he’ll be the most powerful man in the city and he’ll make them pay.

His father Moshé would rather see him at the synagogue than sneaking around the alleys of the diamond district. But Bennie can’t help it. Prayer bores him. Diamonds captivate him. His grandfather Yehuda made his fortune there, and even if the old man cut ties with his son and grandson, Bennie can’t Fight the pull.

From the cutting workshops to the vast trading Floors of the Antwerp Exchange, Bennie will stop at nothing to carve out a place for himself. Not everyone welcomes his rise. Not Steinmer, the mighty dealer whose daughter Eve Bennie loves with reckless abandon. Not Yehuda and his inner circle, who see him as a nobody trying to snatch what should be theirs.

A tender and captivating first novel set in Antwerp’s Jewish world, Michaël Dichter shows incredible talent for creating atmospheres that fully immerse us: the mysterious world of the Diamond Exchange, with its effervescence, its hierarchy, its corridors, its offices, its codes, its rules, its dirty tricks, Yossi Falafel’s restaurant, a place of camaraderie with Mendel and Golda and then Eve, the synagogue… A coming- of-age tale led by a dazzling hero. We can already picture the film!