Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Hare with Amber Eyes
- A Hidden Inheritance
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
The Hare with Amber Eyes
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
Summary
Winner of the 2010 COSTA Biography Award. A total of 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox: potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his Great Uncle Iggie. Later, when Edmund inherited the ‘netsuke’, they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined.…
The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world; in the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. Marcel Proust was briefly his secretary and used Charles as the model for the aesthete Swann in Remembrance of Things Past. Charles’s passion was collecting; the netsuke, bought when Japanese objects were all the rage in the salons, were sent as a wedding present to his banker cousin in Vienna.
Later, three children - including a young Ignace - would play with the netsuke as history reverberated around them. The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke collection, smuggled out of the huge Viennese palace (then occupied by Hitler’s theorist on the ‘Jewish Question’), one piece at a time, in the pocket of a loyal maid – and hidden in a straw mattress.
In this stunningly original memoir, Edmund de Waal travels the world to stand in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited. He traces the network of a remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century. And, in prose as elegant and precise as the netsuke themselves, he tells the story of a unique collection which passed from hand to hand - and which, in a twist of fate, found its way home to Japan.
This audio edition also features an interview with Edmund De Waal from the Vintage Books podcast.
What listeners say about The Hare with Amber Eyes
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- aletrave
- 02-04-24
Insightful on the history of wealth
How revolutions and the disasters of the 20th century destroyed culture and family but somehow stories managed to survive thanks to simple objects
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
- K. Gibson
- 21-03-13
An Excellent Book
I enjoyed every aspect of this reading, the reader's voice was perfect, in fact, there were many moments I imagined it was the author himself speaking.
The story is told so well and covers many countries and huge world and life-changing events in a clear and personal way.
It made me think about acquisitions, about art's place in history and about the difference between oriental and occidental art in our culture.
Well worth listening to for a thoughtful and evocative read!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs. S. E. Binns
- 28-12-16
FANTASTIC
What did you like most about The Hare with Amber Eyes?
This is a memoire of an entire family - their heritage and progress - and the way artistic things handled by their owners links us together. Special book
What other book might you compare The Hare with Amber Eyes to, and why?
The House by the Lake - Thomas Harding This is another book about a whole family who developed and were then affected by the emergence of the Third Reich
Have you listened to any of Michael Maloney’s other performances? How does this one compare?
Not heard others but will do so
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes. I have already read the hard copy twice. One to keep forever
Any additional comments?
It is a book to treasure. I read the paperback (out first) Then bought the hardback for the photos. Then listened to the audio for the additional pleasure it gave
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs. D. Clayton
- 04-05-16
Shocking and beautifully paced
The truth of history discovered as primary source material was incredible - de Waal clearly put a huge effort to recover the story of his incredible family and wrap the story into vast political events to which we have become a little neutralised.
Loved the podcast at the end - would have loved this whole book to have been read out loud by Edmund but the reader was fine!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- malcolm rumney
- 13-08-17
a fascinating journey into a family's stories
through small and exquisite inherited objects dewaal reaches back 150 years bringing the past alive
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- jenny sanders
- 27-01-21
just fabulous
complex, long, engaging, informative, honest, tragic, moving, inspiring, epic.
narration is perfect too
read it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Olivier Herold
- 05-01-21
Great book, poor narrator
Shame that the narrator clearly doesn’t know French or German, nor took the time to learn how to pronounce any of the names, places, words... he doesn’t even pronounce Netsuke correctly. Hugely distracting, disappointing and insulting given the importance of different cultures in this beautiful book. Wonderful to have the podcast with the author at the end!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alcabe
- 18-04-19
Slightly too long for me
It's a good story, but could do with some editing in my view. What is a shame - like lots of books containing foreign words/phrases - is that the producers/narrators don't check pronunciation with a native speaker prior to recording. I have noticed this in books containing French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish words/phrases so I imagine it's a common problem. It's unnecessarily sloppy production, so I hope someone will take notice (on the principle that lots of people who read/listen to books in English speak other languages) and do something about this!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Mark
- 04-04-11
Just not for me
I bought this book because of the rave reviews and high ranking in the best sellers list. I made a mistake. After listening to it for about 2 hours, I turned it off and I do not plan to finish it.
The book is well written and it is well read, but I just could not get into it. If I was related to the author then it might have been interesting family history, but I'm not. I found it as compelling as a well written and well read shopping list.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Maddy
- 02-07-12
Tedious
Like others I bought this because of five star reviews, despite not being grabbed by it when I caught a fragment on Radio 4. I can't finish it, it's just so tedious. Like a cream gateaux that's gorgeous when you have one mouthful but sickening after too much, the descriptions of the fabulously wealthy Ephrussi family in Paris and Vienna, their clothes, their furniture and their palaces, soon lie heavy on the stomach. There is nothing here of interest about their lives, presented as empty socialising, nor about the wider society in which they live, apart from speculation as to how they might have been affected by the high class snubbing of anti-semitism. The breathy excitement of the reader, especially at the beginning (or did I get used to it?) I also found tedious, an attempt to inject some life into this plodding tale perhaps.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful