The Camondos were a Jewish family from Constantinople who made their home in Paris in the 1870s and became philanthropists, art collectors, and fixtures of Belle Époque high society. They were also targets of antisemitism, much like de Waal's relations, the Ephrussi family, to whom they were connected. Eventually, the Camondos were murdered by the Nazis. After de Waal, a ceramic artist, was invited to make an exhibition in the Camondo house, he began to write letters to Moise de Camondo. These fifty letters are deeply personal reflections on assimilation, melancholy, family, art, the vicissitudes of history, and the value of memory. -- adapted from Amazon info