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Title details for The Hare with Amber Eyes by Micheal Maloney - Available

The Hare with Amber Eyes

A Hidden Inheritance

by Micheal Maloney
Edmund de Waal
Audiobook
3 of 5 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
3 of 5 copies available

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)

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    June 23, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427215703
      • File size: 306818 KB
      • Duration: 10:39:12

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The measured calmness in Michael Maloney's reading allows the listener to be immersed in de Waal's memoir. The book tells of the fortunes of the Ephrussis, a wealthy Jewish family of traders whose business dealings spread from Russia across Europe. Now their fortune is diminished, with only their netsuke collection--tiny Japanese ornamental carvings--remaining. De Waal details these objects of fascination and the family's saga, particularly how their maid, Anna, preserved the netsukes and prevented them from being looted by the Nazis. The story tends to ramble, but Maloney always keeps his focus, using pauses and a lean narrative tone to allow the listener to appreciate these unique carvings and the similarly unique family to which de Waal, a potter and curator of ceramics at the Victoria and Albert Museum, belongs. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 31, 2010
      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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