The Hare with Amber Eyes

Finished February 27
The Hare with Amber Eyes: a family's century of art and loss by Edmund de Waal
My mother-in-law lent me this book, and said it was great. She was right.
Edmund finds out that he will be inheriting a collection of netsuke from his great uncle. This causes him to wonder about how the netsuke came into the family, and he ends up tracing back his family history, the collectors over the generations, and the wonderful things they collected. From Odessa to Vienna to Paris to London to Tokyo, he follows various trails, and makes his family come alive for us. There is much art history, history of Jewish intellectuals and their place in the arts world, and social history.
Edmund tells us how he starts with one question and gets interested in some of the other things he finds along the way. He spent a couple years of his life following this trail, and the world is richer for it.
A very interesting book