Traces the parallel stories of nineteenth-century art patron Charles Ephrussi and his unique collection of 264 miniature netsuke Japanese ivory carvings, documenting Ephrussi's relationship with Marcel Proust and the impact of the Holocaust on his cosmopolitan family

264 wood and ivory netsuke, none of them larger than a matchbox: in a stunningly original memoir Edmund de Waal describes the journey taken by this exquisite collection - and the family who treasured it - across continents, and centuries, in a gripping tale of war and peace, passion and loss. Apprentice potter Edmund de Waal was entranced by the collection when he first encountered it in the Tokyo apartment of his Great Uncle Iggie. And later, when Edmund inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined