THE NUMBER ONESUNDAY TIMESBESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD
264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined.
From a burgeoning empire in Odessa tofin de siecleParis, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century.
'You have in your hands a masterpiece' Frances Wilson,Sunday Times
'The most brilliant book I've read for years... A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human' Bettany Hughes,Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year
'A complex and beautiful book' Diana Athill
Edmund de Waal's porcelain is shown in many museum collections round the world and he has recently made installations for the V&A and Tate Britain. He was apprenticed as a potter, studied in Japan and read English at Cambridge. He is Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster and lives in London with his family.
