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Comments (30)

What did you think about this title?
1 to 25 of 30 items
Mar 07, 2024Dbelliveau rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Highly recommend! An exceptional true story, well written.
Sep 18, 2023LT rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
De Waal's picturesque descriptions and the richness of his imaginative encounters with his ancestors are initially provided in a light tone that contrasts strongly with the heart of the book, which deals with the terrible tragedy that was…
Jun 09, 2021
Fascinating book, unusual subject, superbly written. Heartbreaking story of author's family and all they lost to the Nazis. Highly recommend.
Aug 09, 2020andreabilyeu rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Pretty cool as family history, but not a compelling read. Interestingly, I was reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet at the same time, and the climax, very near the conclusion, the magistrate dressed carefully, and used a netsuke.
Sep 13, 2019OlivePlaid rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
After initial reservations about this book, I quickly warmed to the story. If you liked this book, a similar true story is The lady in gold : the extraordinary tale of Gustav Klimt's masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne…
Jan 30, 2018
I found this a gripping, brilliant, warm-hearted book. And yes, a fascinating view of European anti-semitism. I didn't think there was anything fictional about it - just remarkably creative. This book is very high on my list of books…
Nov 30, 2017richibi rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
a wonderful meditation on symbols to retain identity, and heritage, and historical meaning, steeped in the Paris of Marcel Proust, then Klimt's Vienna, before the destruction, the desecration, of the 2nd World War, only cherished, or not,…
Jun 01, 2016Bunny_Watson716 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Intelligent writing and an intriguing topic make this narrative that is at once the story of a family as well as the story of the netsuke, a fascinating read.
Feb 15, 2016Liber_vermis rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
The more I read the more I wondered how much was memoir and how much was historical-fiction. Near the end of his book de Waal admits: “…I tell [a Ukrainian acquaintance] why we’ve come [to Odessa], that I’m writing a book about – I…
Oct 27, 2015pacdg rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I was uncomfortable in the world of privilege portrayed in this book.
Jun 09, 2015Wong_Anne rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
An engaging non-fiction book that traces the family's history through a collection of Netsuke figurines. The memoir begins in Russia and takes the reader through 2 world wars and onto the present. It is a remarkable narrative.
Aug 23, 2014WVMLBookClubTitles rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Edmund de Waal is descended from a grand, 19th century European banking family, the Ephrussi family. But by the end of the Second World War, virtually all that remained of their vast fortune was a collection of 264 Japanese wood and ivory…
Jul 19, 2014santiano9 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Excellent read and a book I could not put down. Use of the netsuke collection as it moved through the ages and the families that owned it as the underpinning for the story was very effective. Not a kind of book I usually enjoy but stayed…
May 12, 2014
from Patricia Wilson 5/2013
Apr 26, 2014Bookafterbook rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Historically interesting and well written story around the author,s family history and his relationship to the great European banking families of Ephrussi and Rothschilds. Author is a renouned English ceramics artist. His exploration…
Feb 18, 2014dinkthecat rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
In a word: amazing. Unsentimental, clearly written story of a family to evoke Age of Innocence and the Budenbrooks. I could not put it down.
Jane60201
Oct 11, 2013Jane60201 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this unusual book. Illustrates periods of history "on the ground" as experienced by real people.
Sep 09, 2013gregorka6036 rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
Not for me. Can't decide if it's meant to be a biography, an art history lesson or if he decided after the fact that he needed a theme (netsuke) to link together all his research into his family history. Seems like someone told him that he…
Jan 09, 2013ALLAN JOHN FLETCHER rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
De Waal's prose is carefully crafted as his pots (He's a brilliant ceramicist). This is an absorbing and atmospheric memoir. Intensely visual, it would make a great movie.
Dec 21, 2012icelandia rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
If history had been taught with books like this for text, I would have gotten straight A’s. One hundred years of the Ephrussi family, a Jewish banking family that originated in Russia and spread from there to Vienna, to Paris, to London,…
Nov 30, 2012dsftulsa rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I loved this book and I didn't think I would. It went off on tangents, but it was like having a conversation with a thoughtful artist. The personal story of his family, the immediacy of the history he relates is wonderful.
Sep 15, 2012bette108 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
It took me a third of the book before my interest was fully captured by this book. Then I was intrigued by the plight of the Ephrussi family and the travels of the netsuke they owned, and how these 'trinkets' survived.
Aug 02, 2012uncommonreader rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
A history told through the story of inherited netsuke - a picture of the macro world told through the micro. Interesting.
Jun 08, 2012
The author is the fourth generation of his family to possess a collection of Japanese netsuke. He combines his search for their story with a remarkable memoir of his Ephrussi family of Odessa, Paris, Vienna and Japan with many more…
Mar 08, 2012
Giant snore, struggling to finish it for book group. Uninteresting lists, name dropping, surprising lack of illustrations. How can one write a book about art and not include SOME illustrations? Don't care what the old house looked like…