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In Search of Amrit Kaur

An Indian Princess in Wartime Paris

Livia Manera Sambuy Todd Portnowitz

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Italian
Vintage
15 April 2025
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 Second World War

'Remarkable and compelling' Edmund de Waal

'Thoroughly engaging' 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
By:  
Translated by:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 130mm,  Spine: 23mm
Weight:   261g
ISBN:   9781529922721
ISBN 10:   1529922720
Pages:   352
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

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.

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

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 * Tantalising...full of intrigue * Observer * Fascinating * TLS * 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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