The White Road: Journey into an Obsession

About this book

Extraordinary new non-fiction a gripping blend of history and memoir by the author of the award-winning and bestselling international sensation The Hare with 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 clays 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 porcelains 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 Amber Eyes de Waal gives us a singular understanding of "the spectrum of porcelain" and the mapping of desire.