[1] In a museum in Mumbai, a chance viewing of a photograph of a Punjabi princess inspires Italian author and journalist, Livia Manera Sambuy, to investigate the Rani's life.
The day of the sitting the newly married Rani was visiting London with her husband, the Raja of Mandi, and was received by King George and Queen Mary.
A wartime letter addressed to the princess’ stepmother - the former Spanish dancer Anita Delgado - stated that Amrit survived only one year in a Nazi concentration camp.
After India's independence in 1947, and after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's abolition of the privy purses in 1971, Bubbles’ family, as many other former Indian royalties, found themselves in reduced circumstances.
Mystified by the enigma surrounding Amrit Kaur's abrupt departure from her family and the fate of her precious jewels, Manera travels between India, Europe and America to unearth the truth.
She discovers that the rani's mysterious life was peopled with fascinating characters, both in the past and present, including Jewish bankers, Parisian jewellers, spies, socialites, royals, writers, and Nazis.
However, the author's search in the French and British archives remains unsatisfying until the breakthrough comes via the serendipitous discovery of Amrit's original briefcase, mysteriously abandoned in a house in California in 1938.
also an act of humanity, to help a heartbroken daughter reconnect with her mother after a lifetime of separation.”[2] Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, called it: “Remarkable and compelling”, adding “I loved this book”.
[4] Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire: "Livia Manera Sambuy 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.
[3] Jane Wallace, on the Asian Review of Books, wrote: “As Sambuy writes, who would have thought that the Holocaust and the end of the Raj would have intertwined in the life of a lonely princess?
[6] Judith Thurman, author of A Left-Handed Woman: "A luminous portrait of Amrit Kaur first beguiled Livia Manera in a dusty museum in Mumbai, and became an obsession.
This beautiful Indian princess, she learned, had escaped her family, leaving behind an unfaithful husband, young children, and a feudal world where the reward for a woman's submission was unimaginable privilege.
And the result of her quest is an even more 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.
"[7] Jhumpa Lahiri, author of Whereabouts: “For decades, Livia Manera Sambuy has carried on in the tradition of pioneering Italian writer-journalists…Nuanced but relentlessly curious, she has a gift not only for listening to other people’s stories but for probing and unfolding exceptional narratives.