Author: Hassan Tahir Latif | Managing Editor (The Aleph Review)

Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux The Hare with Amber Eyes tells the story of the author’s family and traces the journey of 264 netsuke (Japanese miniature sculptures) from war-torn Europe to Japan. Edmund de Waal is a British ceramicist, descended from the Ephrussis—a prominent, affluent European-Jewish family. The Ephrussis had their beginnings in Odessa, from where they spread out across Europe, primarily settling in Paris and Vienna.  At the height of their power, they rivalled other influential European families, such as the Rothschilds.  During a ceramics apprenticeship in Japan, the author stays with a beloved uncle who relocated there…