An intimate narrative history of porcelain, structured around five
journeys through landscapes where porcelain was dreamed about, fired,
refined, collected, and coveted.
Extraordinary new nonfiction, a gripping blend of history and memoir, by
the author of the award-winning and bestselling international sensation,
The Hare with the Amber Eyes.
In The White Road, bestselling author and artist Edmund de Waal gives
us an intimate narrative history of his lifelong obsession with
porcelain, or white gold. A potter who has been working with porcelain
for more than forty years, de Waal describes how he set out on five
journeys to places where porcelain was dreamed about, refined, collected
and coveted-and that would help him understand the clay's mysterious
allure. From his studio in London, he starts by travelling to three
white hills-sites in China, Germany and England that are key to
porcelain's creation. But his search eventually takes him around the
globe and reveals more than a history of cups and figurines; rather, he
is forced to confront some of the darkest moments of twentieth-century
history.
Part memoir, part history, part detective story, The White Road
chronicles a global obsession with alchemy, art, wealth, craft, and
purity. In a sweeping yet intimate style that recalls The Hare with the
Amber Eyes, de Waal gives us a singular understanding of the spectrum
of porcelain and the mapping of desire.
