Spectator Out Loud: Catherine Ostler, Paul Wood, John Power & David Whitehouse

In 1881, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted 'Pink and Blue,' a portrait of sisters Elisabeth and Alice Cahen d'Anvers from one of France's richest banking dynasties, capturing the glamour of Belle Époque Paris. Catherine Ostler chronicles the lives of these three sisters—Irène, Alice, and Elisabeth—amidst opulent society, family secrets, rising antisemitism, the Dreyfus Affair, and the tragedies of two world wars, including collaboration, evasion, and deportation to Auschwitz. Drawing on letters, diaries, and new research, the book reveals privilege, beauty, betrayal, and the clash of personal lives with Europe's turbulent history.

In 'The Hare with Amber Eyes', Edmund de Waal recounts the story of his inheritance of a collection of Japanese netsukes and uses them to explore his family's history. The book follows the journey of these small Japanese carvings from their purchase by Charles Ephrussi in 19th-century Paris to their survival during World War II in Vienna and their eventual return to the family in postwar Tokyo. De Waal reflects on the power and meaning of sight, touch, loss, and memory, providing a vivid and intimate account of a Jewish family's experiences through a tumultuous century.