Have you been surprised by the success of The Hare with Amber Eyes?
I’m thrilled and bewildered. I wanted to tell a very personal story, grounded in one family’s life, about a very painful bit of European history. It was about finding a real narrative that I could tell without being hectoring, sentimental or nostalgic. That was difficult to do.
What do you think it is about the story that has ignited people’s imagination and interest?
I was told by many publishers that there is no room in the market for more Jewish family memoirs. But my publishers understood that it was really a story about storytelling. There’s something universal about what stories you get told by your family. And so the book [is] about what families tell each other and what gets lost in the telling.
Have you received many letters?
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Several thousand. From people who have a shared lineament to people with family histories of exile. It’s derailed my life because I’m trying to write back to every single person. It’s an amazing thing that the book has made people write — it’s very moving.
Has your career as an author overtaken your life as an artist?
I’m in a state of real confusion. I could not be dizzier as an artist. It’s now about trying to lead two lives. There is another book I want to write; it’s about obsession.
Your book traces your family’s collection of netsuke, Japanese wood and ivory carvings. Is collecting an artistic instinct?
My own work is about making collections of objects. The whole subject of collecting has been slightly under the radar until now. People are talking about it again. They are either collectors or non-collectors. They’re either very passionate or very angry. It brings out very strong emotions in people.
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Why are netsuke so beguiling?
It’s their intimacy. It’s the idea of something that small and that tactile, that only really works in your hand. Having that amount of power, being able to tell such big stories through such small things. My favourite netsuke changes from day to day. I randomly pick one up and decide it is completely fabulous, the next day another. There are some really awful ones as well.
What next?
I’m working on two exhibitions: one for a museum in Cambridge and an exhibition of jewish family life through porcelain for Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.
Where are you going on holiday and what will you be reading?
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I’m going to a cottage in northwest Scotland. I’ll be reading Sarah Bakewell’s Life of Montaigne and I’ve just read Esther Freud’s new book and I loved it, so I’m going to take all of her other past novels.