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In Search of Amrit Kaur

An Indian Princess in Wartime Paris

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In Search of Amrit Kaur

Written by: Livia Manera Sambuy, Todd Portnowitz - translator
Narrated by: Christina Cole
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A lost princess and a vanished world: a remarkable true story that moves from the Punjab of the Raj to 1930s Paris and the Second World War

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.

‘Remarkable and compelling’ Edmund de Waal

‘Thoroughly engaging’ Kamila Shamsie

‘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

© Livia Manera Sambuy 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

 Asia Gender Issues India LGBTQ+ Military Social Sciences South Asia Wars & Conflicts Women Women's Studies World War II

Critic 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 (Kamila Shamsie, author of HOME FIRE)
'Remarkable and compelling. I loved this book'
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 (Jhumpa Lahiri, author of WHEREABOUTS)
'An exemplary sleuth, both astute and open-minded . . . Manera Sambuy writes with impassioned style and insight'
Tantalising...full of intrigue
Fascinating
An intimate and engrossing portrait of an extraordinary woman by a writer whose sense of story and place is perfect in every way (John Zubrzycki, author of THE HOUSE OF JAIPUR)
Part personal odyssey, part history, part detective story, In Search of Amrit Kaur is a vivid and intriguing account of the quest - spanning three continents - to uncover the story of a tragic Indian princess (Katie Hickman, author of SHE-MERCHANTS, BUCCANEERS AND GENTLEWOMEN)
A remarkable book about an extraordinary woman... impossible to put down. It offers a rare window into a vanished and exotic world (Rudrangshu Mukherjee, author of NEHRU & BOSE)
A luminous portrait of both Amrit Kaur and Livia Manera: two exceptional women who had to question their assigned fates as daughters, wives, lovers and mothers in order to define themselves (Judith Thurman, author of SECRETS OF THE FLESH)
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