The Hare with Amber Eyes - Edmund de Waal

I bought this thinking it was fiction, but after a slow start it turned out to be something far more intriguing. Ostensibly a history of the author's family's ownership of a collection of netsuke (miniature Japanese sculptures), it covers a wide range of cultural and social history through the eyes of this wealthy cosmopolitan family of Jewish bankers, within the context of the author's thoughtful reflections on his own research and writing, and the impact that the project has on him. Early sections on art collecting in 19th century Paris were of limited interest to me, but the description of life for a prominent Jewish family in Nazi Vienna was compelling. I was impressed by de Waal's avoidance of sentimentality - after telling the quite amazing story of the netsuke's survival, hidden in a mattress by a loyal family servant, he describes this as an 'affront' in the light of the many people connected with the family who were not so lucky. One phrase stuck in my mind particularly clearly: writing of his grandmother's decision to burn her old correspondence and not speak of those times, he says, "Losing things can sometimes give you a space in which to live."