The Hare with Amber Eyes

The Hare with Amber Eyes

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

The Hare with Amber Eyes netsuke, at an exhibition in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, November 2016

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.

Reception

In Bookmarks Nov/Dec 2010 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the summary stated, "A duel, and a duet, of elegy and irony" (Boston Globe), de Waal's extraordinary family memoir brings his forebears vibrantly to life".[2] The book was described by German literary scholar Oliver vom Hove as an “unprecedentedly precise memory book”.[3] It was reviewed in The Washington Post by Michael Dirda,[4] The Guardian by Rachel Cooke,[5] The Economist,[6] The Telegraph,[7] and The International Netsuke Society Journal[8]

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

• 2011 Ondaatje Prize, winner[9]
• 2011 JQ Wingate Prize, shortlist[10]
• 2011 ALA Notable Book^[citation needed]
• 2010 Costa Book Awards, winner (Biography)^[citation needed]
• 2010 Galaxy National Book Award, New Writer of the Year[11]
• 2010 The Economist, Books of the Year list[12]

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

References

1. 'Hare' chronicles unheard of Jewish family, Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle (6 September 2011)
2. "The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss By Edmund de Waal". Bookmarks Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 Sep 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
3. Hofe, Oliver vom (October 2021). "Vor zehn Jahren erschienen – und bald als Gratisbuch in Wien verteilt". Wiener Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2024-10-28.
4. Review by Michael Dirda in The Washington Post, September 2, 2010
5. Review by Rachel Cooke in The Observer, 5 June 2010
6. Review in The Economist, May 20, 2010
7. "Edmund de Waal on Proust: The writer behind the hare", The Telegraph, April 1, 2011
8. Review by David Raitt in The International Netsuke Society Journal Vol 30, n3, Fall 2010, pp44–46
9. Flood, Allison (24 May 2011). "Ondaatje prize goes to Edmund de Waal". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
10. Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize 2011 Archived 2012-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
11. Galaxy National Book Awards, Northumberland County Council
12. Books of the Year, 2010, The Economist

External links

Media related to Hare with Amber Eyes (Ephrussi Collection) at Wikimedia Commons

• The Hare with Amber Eyes, author website.
• Edmund de Waal on YouTube, by Random Reads, June 29, 2010.