In âSophiaâ Ms. Anand tells her subjectâs story with verve and on a broad canvas, an accomplishment because so few of the princessâs own writings remain. This bookâs most vivid moments come from the diary Sophia kept on her visit in India and from interviews Ms. Anand conducted with the princessâs own goddaughter and the evacuees she sheltered during the World War II. Ms. Anand tries to fill in the spaces of her subjectâs inner life, but Sophiaâs ambivalenceâabout the British, about India, and maybe about her own familyâwas her most interesting but also most elusive trait.