Summary

The renowned ceramicist Edmund de Waal became the fifth generation to inherit a small, exquisite collection of 264 netsuke. Entranced by their beauty, he determined to trace the story of his family through the story of the collection.

The netsuke were first gathered by Charles Ephrussi, a cousin of de Waal's great-grandfather, in Paris during the 1870s, at the height of the craze for all things Japanese. An aesthete and art historian, Charles mixed with artists and writers such as Degas, Monet, Renoir, and Proust, who used Charles as a model for the character of Swann in "Remembrance of Things Past." De Waal vividly reconstructs Charles' life in Paris with his collection of Impressionist paintings and his love affair with the beautiful, married Louise Cahen d'Anvers.

Charles gave the netsuke as a wedding present to his cousin Viktor von Ephrussi in Vienna in 1899. The carvings were then passed down to Viktor's son, Iggie, who hid them in his straw mattress when the Nazis confiscated the family's magnificent Viennese palace in 1938, along with the family's vast art collection and library. Iggie managed to escape the Holocaust by fleeing to Japan, bringing with him almost nothing but the netsuke. After the war, the netsuke would remain a centerpiece in Iggie's adopted home in Tokyo, where they would also serve as a precious reminder of a lost world.

"The Hare with Amber Eyes" is a moving and evocative story of a remarkable family and a tumultuous century, spanning from Odessa to Paris, Vienna, and Tokyo. With great sensitivity and affection, de Waal recreates the lives of his ancestors, offering fascinating insights into a vanished world of wealth, privilege, and artistic passion. Above all, "The Hare with Amber Eyes" is a celebration of how even small objects can hold profound emotional significance and connect us to our past.