Matan Yair​

 

​Matan Yair was born in 1977 in Jerusalem, Israel. He holds a BA in General History and Classical Studies, Literature, and Renaissance Studies from Tel Aviv University, where he later completed a research-based MA in Cultural Studies, an MFA in Film Production, and a Teaching Certificate in History. He is also a graduate of the Screenwriting program at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. 
Yair is a novelist, screenwriter, and acclaimed filmmaker. In 2008, his debut novel, A Room of His Own, was published by Toby Press, earning him the Pardes Fellowship from the National Library of Israel. His second novel, Less Thorns (2019, Yedioth Books), was longlisted for the prestigious Sapir Prize. Break-Up (2025), published by Pardes, is his third novel. 
Alongside his literary work, Yair has directed several award-winning feature films – Scaffolding (2017), Unseen (2019), and A Room of His Own (2023) – all supported by the Israel Film Fund. He also created the television drama series One on One for the Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11. 
Yair taught literature and history at a high school in Herzliya for over a decade and currently teaches screenwriting at the Sam Spiegel School, Ma’aleh Film School in Jerusalem, and the Department of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University.

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Break-Up

Novel

Publisher: Pardes

Year: 2025 

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How does one turn life into a compelling story? What lurks in the darkest corners of one’s life and love? What and where are the lines drawn between fantasy and memory, and how can brilliant writing cross them? “The novel by Matan Yair is an explosive, charismatic and seductive work of fiction, without a single phony note” praises Haaretz’ critic.  
He promised his publishers that he would write his entire sexual history. He devised and employed code words and names that only he could decipher. He wrote about his wife's infidelities. About the episode from his past at the hotel, which wouldn't let him be and kept resurfacing in his life. He wrote about falling in love with the director who made a documentary about his mother. About all the signs showing that his wife had a new love. He wrote about all the moments in his life when sex and love intermingled, when the boundaries blurred. He wrote about himself, about his mother, his father, his sister, his wife, as well as his daughters, and about all the sexual encounters in his life that were etched into him. 
This is the third novel by the writer, teacher, and film director Matan Yair (born 1977). His debut, A Room of His Own, won him a prestigious Pardes Fellowship from the Israeli National Library. His second book, Fewer Thorns, was longlisted for the highly regarded Sapir Prize. The films he directed (Scaffolding, Write Down My ID—I'm Your Father, Maturity, A Room of His Own) were received with great acclaim and screened worldwide.

    

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Critical Praise

 

With Break-Up, Matan Yair, widely recognized as a gifted and daring filmmaker, proves that he is one of the leading voices in contemporary Israeli literature. This is an exceptional novel — one of the most powerful and impressive works I have read in recent years. Its effect is rare and immediate, born from a near-chemical reaction between content and style. Yair employs bold narrative strategies and unexpected literary devices to propel the story into surprising and at times unsettling territories.

Omri Herzog, Haaretz

 

Yair writes in a single, breathless flow, without paragraph breaks, in a voice that is as raw and associative as it is intensely intimate. What may initially feel like an unpolished draft gradually reveals itself as a deliberate and inventive choice — an invitation to experience what it means when literature refuses to mediate, soften, or stylize and polish life. This is not an erotic novel, nor is it pornographic; sexuality here is a means rather than an end, a way of exposing what is usually concealed: family silence, male vulnerability, and emotional inheritance.

Gili Izikovich, Haaretz Gallery

 

There are passages in Break-Up driven by a ferocious narrative momentum — a roaring, almost violent surge that transforms the lived experience into a story. This is a rare gift: the ability, even momentarily, to operate a machine that converts life itself into literature. Few writers possess it, and Yair unmistakably does.

Eyal Megged, Yedioth Ahronoth

 

Behind the explicit sexual recollections lies a profound abyss of searching. Through his obsessive cataloging of desires, the narrator confronts his deepest fears: the collapse of intimacy, inherited patterns of masculinity, and the possibility that one’s life may never align with one’s aspirations. Break-Up offers a piercing portrait of a man leaving behind not a lover, but the version of himself he once hoped to become.

Dalia Gutman, “Hachi Bazman” Podcast

 

Break-Up is an antithesis to both the myth of the Israeli macho hero and to conventional erotic literature. The unnamed protagonist is often uncomfortable, at times infuriating, yet endlessly compelling. Yair’s prose is precise, unsparing yet deeply humane, leaving the reader unsettled long after the final page.

Shaked Shapira, Reading Club Recommendation

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