The Hare with Amber Eyes
A Hidden Inheritance
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4.3 • 368 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Bestseller
An Economist Book of the Year
Costa Book Award Winner for Biography
Galaxy National Book Award Winner (New Writer of the Year Award)
Edmund de Waal is a world-famous ceramicist. Having spent thirty years making beautiful pots—which are then sold, collected, and handed on—he has a particular sense of the secret lives of objects. When he inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, called netsuke, he wanted to know who had touched and held them, and how the collection had managed to survive.
And so begins The Hare with Amber Eyes, this extraordinarily moving memoir and detective story as de Waal discovers both the origins of the netsuke and of his family, the Ephrussis, over five generations. A nineteenth-century banking dynasty in Paris and Vienna, the Ephrussis were as rich and respected as the Rothchilds. Yet by the end of the World War II, when the netsuke were hidden from the Nazis in Vienna, this collection of very small carvings was all that remained of their vast empire.
"To be handed a story as durable and exquisitely crafted as this is a rare pleasure. . . . This book is impossible to put down. You have in your hands a masterpiece." —The Sunday Times (London)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this family history, de Waal, a potter and curator of ceramics at the Victoria Albert Museum, describes the experiences of his family, the Ephrussis, during the turmoil of the 20th century. Grain merchants in Odessa, various family members migrated to Vienna and Paris, becoming successful bankers. Secular Jews, they sought assimilation in a period of virulent anti-Semitism. In Paris, Charles Ephrussi purchased a large collection of Japanese netsuke, tiny hand-carved figures including a hare with amber eyes. The collection passed to Viktor Ephrussi in Vienna and became the family's greatest legacy. Loyal citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Vienna Ephrussis were devastated by the outcome of WWI and were later driven from their home by the imposition of Nazi rule over Austria. After WWII, they discovered that their maid, Anna, had preserved the netsuke collection, which Ignace Ephrussi inherited, and he settled in postwar Japan. Today, the netsuke reside with de Waal (descended from the family's Vienna branch) and serve as the embodiment of his family history. A somewhat rambling narrative with special appeal to art historians, this account is nonetheless rich in drama and valuable anecdote. 20 b&w illus.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
From beginning to end, a truly spellbinding book. Brilliantly written! Full of emotion! I could not put the book down!
Really Interesting
Since the author inherited the netsuke collection and some family history you might expect this book to be good. Add to that all the research he did and the wonderful writing skills and you've got a great and fun to read book. Like three degrees of separation from a ton of very famous people.
An Elegant Sojourn
How reassuring for some of us for de Waal to confirm the importance of collecting things over time for the glue those collections provide a family's many generations.
"Hare..." is an elegantly composed paeon to collecting and an elegiac memoir of a spectacularly Successful 19th century Jewish
Family, its dissolution through Nazism, and its ultimate resurrection.
Written in brilliant prose " Hare..." describes an aesthetic that will capture you throughout. And, Its
descriptions of the Anschluss are unique.