The Hare with Amber Eyes
The Hare with Amber Eyes (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.
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 |
Awards and honours
- 2011 Ondaatje Prize, winner.
- 2011 JQ Wingate Prize, shortlist.[2]
- 2011 ALA Notable Book.
- 2010 Costa Book Awards, winner (Biography).
- 2010 Galaxy National Book Award, New Writer of the Year[3]
- 2010 Amazon.com, Best of the Month, September
- 2010 The Economist, Books of the Year list[4]
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
- German translation by Brigitte Hilzensauer: Der Hase mit den Bernsteinaugen. Das verborgene Erbe der Familie Ephrussi, Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna, 2011, ISBN 978-3-552-05556-8
References
- 'Hare' chronicles unheard of Jewish family, The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh (6 September 2011)
- Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize 2011 Archived 2012-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
- Galaxy National Book Awards, Northumberland County Council
- 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.
- "Edmund de Waal on Proust: The writer behind the hare" - article about the book, of April 1, 2011