Many of you will already have had this from us – so far it has been our bestselling book of 2010. But if you haven’t, it is well worth it: De Waal is a potter who inherited a collection of Japanese netsuke, and this is the departure point for a memoir of his forebears, wealthy European Jews. The collection was first bought by an aesthete on whom Proust modelled Swann… Original, fascinating and moving.