The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal is the history of a family through 264 objects - set against a turbulent century - from an acclaimed writer and artist.
Edmund de Waal is a renowned ceramic artist whose work has been exhibited in Tate Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He can trace his ancestry back to a wealthy Ukrainian family who made their fortune from grain exporting and later banking, and who had spacious and luxurious homes in Vienna, Tokyo and Paris. When Edmund inherited a collection of 264 tiny Japanese netsuke carvings from his Uncle Ignace, he felt prompted to investigate their place in the family history. The Hare With Amber Eyes is the result. It is a narrative of the wealthy Jewish Ephrussi family which moves through the decades from commercial Odessa to the Paris of the Impressionists and artistic salons to the brutal destruction of the Anschluss of 1938 in Vienna and a familial diaspora over three continents.

Available in the Senior School library.