Review: ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’

I’ve started my New Year’s resolution with fanfare, having read this extraordinary book, The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal, winner of the 2010 Costa Biography Award. It is one of those rare books that you can’t forget once you’ve finished – a poignant, gentle restructuring of lives gone by, of art and the joy of art, of the strange dichotomy of human nature: the love of beauty and ruthless pursuit of power.

We follow the journey of a collection of Japanese netsuke – small, meticulous...