| The Hare with Amber Eyes | |
| Author: | Edmund de Waal |
| Subject: | Ephrussi family |
| Genre: | Biography |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Pub Date: | 2010 |
| Pages: | 353 |
| Isbn: | 978-0-374-10597-6 |
| Oclc: | 694399313 |
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. In 2021, The Hare with Amber Eyes was distributed in Vienna as a free book, with a print run of 100,000 copies.
The narrator describes the lengthy research into various – long deceased – family members and concentrates his report on the touching story of a collection of 264 netsuke, Japanese miniatures, carved from wood or ivory. This collection was acquired by Charles Ephrussi in Paris, came as a gift to Charles's cousin, Viktor Ephrussi, and was hidden by a nanny named Anna when organs of the Nazi state confiscated the Palais Ephrussi and the family's art collection there and returned to the family after 1945. The book is equipped with a family tree.
The book is described by the literary scholar Oliver vom Hove as an “unprecedentedly precise memory book”.[2] However, it has been argued that the reported history of the Ephrussi & Co. banking house does not correspond to historical facts. For example, Alexander Weiner, the head of the bank from 1924, does not appear in the entire book.[3] And there are other inaccuracies: The depiction of Ignaz von Ephrussi contradicts the documents that have been preserved in the inheritance file, which is in the Vienna City and State Archives.[4] The social and economic historian Roman Sandgruber comments on the wealth of Victor Ephrussis, who is characterized as the richest banker in Vienna after Albert Rothschild: "De Waal also overestimates him. He was by no means the second richest banker in the city, but in 1910 ranked 258th on the income scale."[5] Contemporary historian Oliver Rathkolb has dedicated his own search for traces to Anna, but without success.[6]
It was generally well-received. In Bookmarks Nov/Dec 2010 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.00 out of 5) with the summary stating," "A duel, and a duet, of elegy and irony" (Boston Globe), de Waal's extraordinary family memoir brings his forebears vibrantly to life".[7]