As some of you may know, I have been enjoying this glorious Australian summer with my family at the beach for the last two weeks. And I managed to get in a couple of books (including a bit of Narnia with my children). This one definitely gripped me.
edmund de waal – the hare with amber eyes
Edmund de Waal is an English potter, celebrated for his ceramics world wide. His work appears in the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate Britain, amongst other places.
The Hare with Amber Eyes is a biography of a Jewish family – Edmund’s family – their rise and fall, and the tale of survival of a collection of Japanese netsuke against all odds.
The Ephrussi family (Efrussi in the Russian spelling) rose to fortune in the Russian port of Odessa in the early 1800s, making their money from trading wheat, before moving into banking. When one of the sons moves to Vienna in the mid 1800s and marries, the story intensifies. As the family becomes more powerful and rich and the family spreads throughout Europe, the time frame moves nearer to now, and the characters become increasingly vivid through succeeding generations.
It is a harrowing tale of how the family fared through two World Wars, how a fortune was lost and a family was wrenched apart, and all but destroyed.
It is the tale of how a collection of Japanese netsuke came into the family and how they miraculously survived. De Waal describes these intricate objects with his potter’s sensitivity for the tactile, and as I read I can nearly feel their delicate carving in my hand.
This is a very personal story; it is Edmund himself who is the final recipient of these enigmatic pieces. These stories are of his family; he takes us on his journey of collecting together the fragments of family correspondence and historical records, of visiting what remains of family buildings and homes, and his conversations with his great uncle and his grandmother who lived through it. And he tells of his own feelings, as each new discovery about what really happened is made.
Sad and wonderful, and recommended.
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You can find more about Edmund de Waal, his ceramics, The Hare with Amber Eyes, and the netsuke on his website – http://www.edmunddewaal.com