In Search of Amrit Kaur

A Lost Princess and Her Vanished World

De: Livia Manera Sambuy

Narrado por: Christina Cole

As she builds her own life anew, an Italian writer embarks on an all-consuming search for the true story of the mysterious princess H. H. Amrit Kaur of Mandi.

On a sweltering day in 2007, having just lost her brother to illness, Livia Manera Sambuy finds herself at a museum in Mumbai, enthralled by a 1924 photograph of a stunningly elegant Indian princess. What she reads in the picture’s caption will change her life forever. This alluring Punjabi royal had supposedly 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.

Could it be true? And if so, how could such a sensational story have gone unreported? Almost against her will, Manera becomes drawn into the mystery. Delving into the history of the British Raj, its durbars and society balls and jubilees, she shows us the precipitous decline of India’s royal caste. The lives of extraordinary figures such as the Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala, the Jewish banker Albert Kahn, and the Russian explorer Nicholas Roerich―all in a decades-long pursuit of the elusive Amrit Kaur.

When she rendezvouses with the princess’s eighty-year-old daughter, Sambuy’s search takes on a new dimension, as she strives to reconnect an orphan with the mother who abandoned her in 1933, leaving behind her two children, her raja husband, and a legacy of activism in India’s women’s civil rights movement.

In Search of Amrit Kaur is an engrossing detective story, a kaleidoscopic history lesson, and a moving portrait of women, across the century, seeking personal freedom.

©2023 Livia Manera Sambuy (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Amazing story

As a disclaimer, this book really is about the search for Amrit Kaur, as little is known about Amrit Kaur herself. But even with the limited information we have, it is an amazing story and I was impressed and inspired by the author’s research! The narrator does a great job conveying the author’s story with just the right amount of emotional nuance. Would recommend to anyone interested in France or India during WWII!

Interesting culture and time

This was during a time of transition for the royalty of India. She covers many of the surrounding events. However, more of a discussion of the royalty connection to impoverished members of society, and how that poverty compares to today would be a great addition. Overall, she did a good job of sticking to the main topic of this woman’s life, without becoming too distracted.