In Search of Amrit Kaur
A Lost Princess and Her Vanished World
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
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 wartime 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 of Amrit Kaur. 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 through the lives of extraordinary figures such as Amrit’s father, the larger-than-life Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala; the Jewish banker Albert Kahn; and the Russian explorer Nicholas Roerich—all while pursuing the elusive Amrit Kaur’s story.
When she meets with the princess’s eighty-year-old daughter, Manera’s search takes on a new dimension, as she strives to reintroduce an orphan to a mother who disappeared in 1933, leaving behind two children, her raja husband, and a legacy of activism in India’s nascent women’s civil rights movement.
In Search of Amrit Kaur is an engrossing detective story, a kaleidoscopic history lesson, and a moving portrait of a woman seeking personal freedom against the backdrop of a world in upheaval.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This probing English-language debut from journalist Sambuy details the author's efforts to uncover the story of Indian princess Amrit Kaur. Sambuy recounts how, while in Mumbai for work, she happened upon a 1924 portrait of Kaur and became fascinated by the photograph's label, which suggested that Kaur had died at the hands of Nazis after traveling to Europe and selling her jewelry to assist Jews escaping the Third Reich. The author's search for information about Kaur takes her from Maryland to Paris; Pune, India; and beyond as she turns up fragmentary evidence from the princess's past, discovering that Kaur passionately advocated for women's rights, left behind her young children and husband after he married a second wife, and endured harsh conditions at a Besançon, France, concentration camp during WWII. Though definitive answers remain in short supply (Sambuy casts doubt on the claim that Kaur sold her jewelry to aid Jewish refugees), the eloquent and poetic prose ("The crowd was praying with such fervour that I could feel the air vibrating like the string of an enormous double bass") enlivens the searching historiography. Original and difficult to classify, this is a pleasure to read. Photos.
Customer Reviews
Mucking through the research
I really thought I’d enjoy this book but half way through I was exhausted from reading the overwhelming amount of the author’ research. Very little subject matter on the the main character, heavy on the author’ research. I gave up.