The hare with amber eyes

The book is a memoir and a microhistory that unfolds the story of the author's remarkable Jewish family, the Ephrussis, a wealthy dynasty of grain importers and bankers, across a tumultuous century. The narrative is centered around a collection of 264 Japanese netsuke (small, intricate carvings) that survived the family's changing fortunes, including the Nazi occupation of Vienna. De Waal traces the journey of these objects through five generations, offering a meditation on art, history, loss, and inheritance.