OUR STORE IS CLOSED ON ANZAC DAY: THURSDAY 25 APRIL

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

The Hare with Amber Eyes

A Hidden Inheritance

Edmund de Waal

$22.99

Paperback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English
Vintage
01 March 2011
The history of a family through 264 objects - set against a turbulent century - from an acclaimed writer and potter
*
*THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
*
*
*
*WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
*
*

264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox- Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined.

From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.

'You have in your hands a masterpiece' Sunday Times

'The most brilliant book I've read for years... A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human' Daily Telegraph

'A complex and beautiful book' Diana Athill
*
*ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY
*
*

By:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 26mm
Weight:   317g
ISBN:   9780099539551
ISBN 10:   0099539551
Pages:   368
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Edmund de Waal's porcelain is shown in many museum collections round the world and he has recently made installations for the V&A and Tate Britain. He was apprenticed as a potter, studied in Japan and read English at Cambridge. He is Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster and lives in London with his family.

Reviews for The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance

Part treasure hunt, part family saga, Edmund de Waal's richly original memoir spans nearly two centuries and covers half the world * Evening Standard * Few writers have ever brought more perception, wonder and dignity to a family story as has Edmund de Waal in a narrative that beguiles from the opening sentence -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * This remarkable book... a meditation on touch, exile, space and the responsibility of inheritance... like the netsuke themselves, this book is impossible to put down. you have in your hands a masterpiece. -- Frances Wilson * The Sunday Times * From a hard and vast archival mass...Mr de Waal has fashioned, stroke by minuscule stroke, a book as fresh with detail as if it had been written from life, and as full of beauty and whimsy as a netsuke from the hands of a master carver. * The Economist * [A] wonderful book -- Dame Felicity Lott * Waitrose Weekend *


  • Shortlisted for Costa Biography Award 2010.
  • Winner of Costa Biography Award 2010
  • Winner of Costa Biography Award 2010.
  • Winner of Galaxy National Book Awards: National Book Tokens New Writer of the Year 2010
  • Winner of Galaxy National Book Awards: National Book Tokens New Writer of the Year 2010.
  • Winner of Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2011.
  • Winner of Independent Booksellers' Week Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2011.
  • Winner of Ondaatje Prize 2011.

See Also