The Hare with Amber Eyes
Book by Edmund de Waal
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The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance (2010) is a family memoir by British ceramicist Edmund de Waal.[1] De Waal tells the story of his family, the Ephrussi, once a very wealthy European Jewish banking dynasty, centred in Odessa, Vienna and Paris, and peers of the Rothschild family.[1] The Ephrussis lost almost everything in 1938 when the Nazis confiscated their property,[1] and were unable to recover most of their property after the war, including priceless artwork; an easily hidden collection of 264 Japanese netsuke miniature sculptures was saved, tucked away inside a mattress by Anna, a loyal maid at Palais Ephrussi in Vienna during the war years. The collection has been passed down through five generations of the Ephrussi family, providing a common thread for the story of its fortunes from 1871 to 2009.
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| Author | Edmund de Waal |
|---|---|
| Subject | Ephrussi family |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Pages | 353 |
| ISBN | 978-0-374-10597-6 |
| OCLC | 694399313 |
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Reception
The book was described by German literary scholar Oliver vom Hove as an “unprecedentedly precise memory book”.[2] It was reviewed in The Washington Post by Michael Dirda,[3] The Guardian by Rachel Cooke,[4] The Economist,[5] and The International Netsuke Society Journal. [6]
In 2021, The Hare with Amber Eyes was distributed in Vienna as a free book, with a print run of 100,000 copies.[citation needed]
Awards and honours
- 2010 The Economist, Books of the Year list[7]
- 2010 Galaxy National Book Award, New Writer of the Year[8]
- 2010 Costa Book Awards, winner (Biography)[citation needed]
- 2011 ALA Notable Book[citation needed]
- 2011 JQ Wingate Prize, shortlist[9]
- 2011 Ondaatje Prize, winner[10]
Editions
- First UK edition: The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, Chatto & Windus, Great Britain, 2010.
- First US edition: The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2010. ISBN 978-0-374-10597-6
