The Hare With Amber Eyes

Fifteen years after Iggie’s death, de Waal returns to Tokyo and stays with Jiro.

Two years after beginning his research, the author and his brother Thomas travel to Odessa. They look at the building where the Efrussi bank was once located—a reminder that the Jewish family changed the spelling of their name to Ephrussi when they first emigrated to Vienna. The de Waal brothers also visit the house next door, where Jules, Ignace, Charles, and Viktor were born. The neglected building is undergoing renovation into offices. The double Ephrussi crest on an iron balcony is the only reminder of its former occupants. De Waal stands on the balcony, looking across the avenue to the Black Sea, feeling his ancestors’ presence. Afterward, they enter a synagogue, and the author notes the yellow Seder chair, set apart for Elijah the Prophet. De Waal realizes that the yellow armchair in Charles Ephrussi’s study was a sly reference to this Jewish tradition.

On his journey home to England, de Waal reviews his notebooks, feeling that he still has many unanswered questions about his family’s history. He recalls that although Elisabeth was scrupulous about keeping correspondence, she burned all the letters from her grandmother and rarely talked about her mother, Emmy.