Description
Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal is a reflective work of literary non-fiction that explores memory, family history, art, and loss through a series of imagined letters.
Addressed to Moïse de Camondo, the letters examine the remarkable history of the Camondo family, prominent Jewish philanthropists and collectors whose Paris residence is now the Musée Nissim de Camondo. De Waal traces their rise in Belle Époque society, the devastating losses they endured during the First and Second World Wars, and the tragic fate of the family during the Holocaust.
Inspired by his own exhibition at the Camondo house, de Waal blends history, biography, and personal reflection to consider themes of identity, assimilation, exile, remembrance, and the enduring power of art. Elegant and deeply moving, Letters to Camondo is both a meditation on cultural heritage and a tribute to lives shaped by history.
