In Search of Amrit Kaur: An Indian Princess in Wartime Paris

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A lost princess and a vanished world- a remarkable true story that moves from the Punjab of the Raj to 1930s Paris and the cataclysm of the Second World War A lost princess and a vanished world- a remarkable true story that moves from the Punjab of the Raj to 1930s Paris and the cataclysm of the Second World War 'Remarkable and compelling. I loved this book' Edmund de Waal 'A thoroughly engaging read' Kamila Shamsie In a Mumbai museum in 2007, Livia Manera Sambuy encounters a photograph that will change her life forever. The caption claims that the Punjabi princess Amrit Kaur sold her jewels in occupied Paris to save Jewish lives, only to be arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp where she died within a year. For Livia, this marks the beginning of a compulsive search for the truth as she delves into the history of the British Raj, the diamonds and sapphires of the twentieth-century aristocracy, and the lives of extraordinary figures- bankers, jewellers, explorers and spies. 'An ambitious, absorbing work that peels back the layers of its enigmatic subject and digs deeply into the author's own emotional vicissitudes' Jhumpa Lahiri 'A tantalizing true story . . . In Search of Amrit Kaur plunges into the glittery world of Indian royalty' New York Times Book Review

Reviews

Livia Manera is a wonderful detective-companion to lead us through this rich and complex world of princesses and prisoners of war, love and deceit, secrets and discovery... a thoroughly engaging read
'Remarkable and compelling. I loved this book' * Edmund de Waal *
Nuanced but relentlessly curious, Livia Manera Sambuy has a gift not only for listening to other people's stories but for probing and unfolding exceptional narratives. In Search of Amrit Kaur - an ambitious, absorbing work that peels back the layers of its enigmatic subject and digs deeply into the author's own emotional vicissitudes - is her crowning jewel
'An exemplary sleuth, both astute and open-minded . . . Manera Sambuy writes with impassioned style and insight' * Telegraph *
Fascinating * TLS *

Author Bio

Livia Manera Sambuy (Author) Livia Manera Sambuy is an Italian writer whose book of profiles of American writers, Non Scrivere Di Me, was published in 2015. She is also the author and co-director of two documentary films on Philip Roth. She has been a staff writer at the literary pages of the Italian national daily Corriere della Sera for over twenty years. She lives in Paris. Todd Portnowitz is the translator of The Greatest Invention; Long Live Latin; and Go Tell It to the Emperor- The Selected Poems of Pierluigi Cappello, for which he was awarded a Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.