An extraordinary blend of narrative history and memoir, by the author
of the award-winning and bestselling international sensation, *The
Hare with Amber Eyes
*
In The White Road, artist Edmund de Waal gives us an intimate portrait
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
begins by travelling to three "white hills"--sites in China, Germany,
and England that are key to porcelain's creation. But his search
eventually leads 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.