Letters to Camondo: Immerses you in another age Financial Times

(Paperback)

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From the author of the bestselling phenomenon The Hare with Amber Eyes The rise and fall of an extraordinary family in twentieth century Europe From the author of the bestselling phenomenon The Hare with Amber Eyes As you may have guessed by now, I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well. The Camondos lived just a few doors away from Edmund de Waal's forebears. Like de Waal's family, they were part of belle epoque high society. They were also targets of anti-Semitism. Count Moise de Camondo created a spectacular house filled with art for his son to inherit. Over a century later, de Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and, in a haunting series of letters addressed to Camondo, he tells us what happened next. 'Illuminating... A wonderful tribute to a family and to an idea' Guardian 'Letters to Camondo immerses you in another age... Dazzling' Financial Times

Reviews

I was deeply moved... De Waal has found a way to meditate on exile, migration and polarisation that feels painfully relevant * Sunday Times *
This is a marvellous book, elegant, tender, loving, appreciative, disturbing, a reminder of both the fragility and resilience of high culture, indeed civilisation * Scotsman *
De Waal is a writer of grace and restlessly enquiring intelligence, and Letters to Camondo succeeds admirably... Edmund de Waal's beautiful book opens a window onto an entire lost world * Evening Standard *
De Waal's sentences like to take the historical weight of the objects he describes... An unforgettable book * Observer *
It will make you think differently about trunks in the attic and it will make you read old letters with new eyes * The Times *

Author Bio

Edmund de Waal is an artist whose porcelain is exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. His bestselling memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes, won the RSL Ondaatje prize and the Costa Biography Award and in 2015 he was awarded the Windham-Campbell prize for non-fiction by Yale University. The White Road, a journey into the history of porcelain, was published in 2015. He lives in London with his family. www.edmunddewaal.com