Books Set in Europe: France, Austria, and England

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal (2010)

The Hare with Amber Eyes is a memoir of the author’s paternal ancestors, who were once of the wealthy European Jewish Ephrussi’s of the banking dynasty.  The memoir starts with a telling of the author’s great-uncle Charles Ephrussi, an art collector in Paris.  In the 1870’s, Charles acquired over 260 Japanese netsuke, the small wood and ivory carvings of plants and animals.  One of the netsuke was a hare with amber eyes, hence the title of the book.

Charles gave the netsuke to his Viennese cousin, Viktor Ephrussi, as a wedding present.  Viktor was the author’s great-grandfather, which is how the items came into the possession of the author’s family.

Because the Ephrussi’s were Jewish, albeit secular, during the Nazi regime and World War II, they lost everything, including the extensive art collection.  Amazingly, the netsuke survived and remained in the family.  (We learn the story of their survival in the book.)  The author inherited the netsuke collection, which led him to explore his family’s history.

His grandmother, Elizabeth Ephurssi, converted to Anglican Church when she married the Dutch Hendrik de Waal.  The author father, Elizabeth’s son, became an Anglican priest, thus the memoir is in part a search into the author’s Jewish past.  I found it a rather uncomfortable search.

I read this book because it was a selection of one of my book discussion groups.

Read:  November 4, 2018

2 Stars