In Search of Amrit Kaur

2007. Italian writer Livia Manera Sambuy encounters a photo of Princess Amrit Kaur in a Mumbai museum. The picture is gorgeous, arresting, – but the caption will change Livia’s life forever. It claims that the Punjabi princess 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. It’s a sensational story – and for Livia, 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 20th-century aristocracy, and the lives of extraordinary figures: bankers, jewellers, explorers and spies. Filled with glamour and terror, beauty and sorrow, this is an engrossing detective story, a kaleidoscopic history lesson, and a moving portrait of mothers, lovers and daughters across the century, seeking personal freedom.