ABOUT THE BOOK:
"A fast-paced and vibrant wartime tale of holding on to love against the odds and learning to fight for the truth." –Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter
A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival, from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff
London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war.
Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history. The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.
Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.
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Prologue
Helaine
Paris, 1943
Darkness.
Helaine stumbled
forward, unable to see through the black void that surrounded her.
She could feel the shoulders of the others jostling on either side.
The smell of unwashed bodies rose, mingling with Helaine’s own. Her
hand brushed against a rough wall, scraping her knuckles. Someone
ahead tripped and yelped.
Hours earlier,
when Helaine had been brought from her underground cell at the police
station into the adjacent holding area, she was surprised to see
other women waiting. She had not encountered anyone since her arrest.
She had studied the women, who looked to be from all walks of life,
trying to discern some commonality among their varied ages and
classes that had caused them to be here. There was only one: they
were Jews. The yellow star they wore, whether soiled and crudely sewn
onto a worn, secondhand dress or pressed crisply against the latest
Parisian finery, was identical—and it made them all the same.
They had stood
in the bare holding area, not daring to speak. Helaine was certain
that her arrest had been some sort of mis take. She had done nothing
wrong. They had to free her. But even as she thought this, she knew
that the old world of being a French citizen with rights was long
gone.
An hour passed,
then two. There was nowhere to sit, and a few people dropped to the
floor. An elderly woman dozed against the wall, mouth agape. But for
the slight rise and fall of her chest, she might have been dead.
Hunger gnawed at Helaine and she wished that she still had the baked
goods she purchased at the market just before she was taken. The
meager breads, which had seemed so pathetic days earlier, now would
have been a feast. But her belongings had been confiscated at arrest.
Helaine looked
upward through the thin slit of window near the ceiling. They were
still in Paris. The sour smell from the city street and the sounds of
cars and footsteps despite the curfew were familiar, if not
comforting. How long they would stay here, she did not know. Helaine
was torn. She did not want to remain in this empty room forever. Yet
she also dreaded leaving, for wherever they were going would surely
be worse.
Finally, the
door had opened. “Sortir!” a voice ordered them out in native
French, reminding Helaine that the policemen, who had brought them
here and who were keeping them captive, were not Germans, but their
own people.
Helaine had
filed into the dimly lit corridor with the others. They exited the
police station and stepped outside onto the pavement. At the sight of
the familiar buildings and the street leading away from the station,
Helaine momentarily considered fleeing. She had no idea, though,
where she would go. She imagined running to her childhood home,
debated whether her estranged mother would take her in or turn her
away. But the women were heavily guarded and there was no real
possibility of escape. Instead, Helaine breathed the fresh air in
great gulps, sensing that she might not be in the open again for
quite some time.
The women were
herded up a ramp toward an awaiting truck. Helaine recoiled. They
were being placed in the back part of the vehicle where goods should
have been carried, not people. Helaine wanted to protest but did not
dare. Smells of stale grain and rotting meat, the truck’s previous
cargo, assaulted her nose, mixing with her own stench in the warm
air. It had been three days since she had bathed or changed and her
dress was wrinkled and filthy, her once-luminous black curls dull and
matted against her head.
When the women
were all inside the truck, the back hatch shut with an ominous click.
“Where are they taking us?” someone whispered. Silence. No one
knew and they were all too afraid to venture a guess. They had heard
the stories of the trains headed east to awful places from which no
one ever returned. Helaine wondered how long the journey would be.
As they bumped
along the Paris streets, Helaine’s bones, already sore from
sleeping on the hard prison cell floor, cried out in pain. Her mouth
was dry and her stomach empty. She wanted water and a meal, a hot
bath. She wanted home.
If home was a
place that even existed anymore. Helaine’s husband, Gabriel, was
missing in Germany, his fate unknown. She had scarcely spoken with
her parents since before the war. And Helaine herself had been taken
without notice. Nobody knew that she had been arrested or had any
idea where she had gone. It was as if she simply no longer existed.
To distract
herself, Helaine tried to picture the route they were taking outside
the windowless truck, down the boulevards she had just days earlier
walked freely, past the cafés and shops. The familiar locations
should have been some small comfort. But this might well be the last
time she ever came this way, Helaine realized, and the thought only
worsened her despair.
Several minutes
later, the truck stopped with a screech. They were at a train
station, Helaine guessed. The back hatch to the truck opened and the
women peered out into pitch blackness. “Raus!” a voice commanded.
That they were under the watch of Germans now seemed to confirm
Helaine’s worst fears about where they were headed. “Schnell!”
Someone let out a cry, a mix of the anguish and uncertainty they all
felt.
The women
clambered from the truck and Helaine stumbled, banging her knee and
yelping. “Quiet,” a woman’s voice beside her cautioned
fearfully. A hand reached out and helped her down the ramp with an
unexpectedly gentle touch.
Outside the
truck it was the tiniest bit lighter, and Helaine was just able to
make out some sort of loading dock. The group moved forward into a
large building.
Now Helaine
found herself in complete darkness once more. This was how she had
come to be in an unfamiliar building, shuffling forward blindly with
a group of women she did not know, uncertain of where they were going
or the fate that might befall them. She could see nothing, only feel
the fear and confusion in the air around her. They seemed to be in
some sort of corridor, pressed even more closely together than they
had been. Helaine put her hand on the shoulder of the woman in front
of her, trying hard not to fall again.
They were herded
roughly through a doorway, into a room that was also unlit. No one
moved or spoke. Helaine had heard rumors of mass executions, groups
of people gassed or simply shot. The Germans might do that to them
now. Her skin prickled. She thought of those she loved most, Gabriel
and, despite everything that had happened, her parents. Helaine
wanted their faces, not fear, to be her final thought.
Bright lights
turned on suddenly, illuminating the space around them. “Mon Dieu!”
someone behind her exclaimed softly. Helaine blinked her eyes,
scarcely daring to believe what she saw. They were not in a camp or a
prison at all. Instead, they were standing in the main showroom of
what had once been one of the grandest department stores in Paris.
Excerpted from LAST TWILIGHT IN
PARIS by Pam Jenoff. Copyright © 2025 by Pam Jenoff. Published by
Park Row Books, an imprint of HTP/HarperCollins.
MY TWO CENTS:
Pam Jenoff hates me. She's never met me, true, but she must hate me because apparently she loves to tear my heart out. I really was really taken in by her other book The Woman With the Blue Star so when I got the opportunity to read an advance copy of her new book, I jumped at the chance. Any book that makes me look more into actual historical events is something I really enjoy and Last Twilight in Paris is one of those stories.
This is a story that does go back in forth in time between two different characters, but not a huge amount of time like some books. It is the story of Helaine who was imprisoned by the Germans during the war, but in a very different location than the camps we have learned about in history. In the story, Helaine is a prisoner in Levitan, a former department store in Paris. Goods stolen by the Nazis from Jewish homes are brought in, sorted and then sold. All this work is done by the prisoners. While Helaine may be a fictional character, Levitan was not. It really was a store that the Germans used to hold Jewish citizens and while not as severe as some of the death camps, they were still forced to work and held against their will. Helaine's story is absolutely horrific and without going into too much detail or spoiler territory, the reader gets to follow her through her whole journey through her ordeal, along with fellow prisoners.
It is also the story of Louise, who, while not a prisoner of war, saw her share of heartbreak during wartime volunteering for the Red Cross. She doesn't realize that even though the war is over, how much of her time and experiences during the war she has brought into her life years after it has ended. Because of events that happened to Louise, she feels driven to set things right for a friend she lost during that time. Again, no spoilers but these two women will have a connection, and I found myself racing through to find out how it was all going to tie together.
Learning about this little known part of the Holocaust was amazing. It was heartbreaking, terrifying but also gives the reader that shred of hope we all need to survive. It also teaches us about healing in the most terrible of times. I can't say enough good about this book. Is it a light fun read? No, I teared up several times and also felt legitimately scared for Helaine and her fellow prisoners in some parts. That's how good of job the author does. So, does Ms. Jenoff rip my heart out? Sure does! But now that I think about it, she must not hate me because while she makes me feel all of these emotions, she does it in the most loving of ways by entertaining us with a good story but teaching about things all should know. Releases February 4, 2025.
BOOK DETAILS AND WHERE TO BUY:
Last Twilight In Paris
By Pam Jenoff
On Sale: February 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780778307983
Park Row Hardcover
Price: $28.99
Buy Links:
HarperCollins:
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/last-twilight-in-paris-pam-jenoff?variant=42640819388450
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=9780778307983&tag=hcg-02-20
Barnes & Noble:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/last-twilight-in-paris-pam-jenoff/1145679315?ean=9780778387794
Bookshop.org:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-department-of-stolen-heirlooms-original-pam-jenoff/21476022?ean=9780778307983
Social Links:
Author Website:
https://pamjenoff.com/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/pamjenoff/
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/213562.Pam_Jenoff
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pam-Jenoff/1216746581800099
Twitter (X):
https://twitter.com/PamJenoff
About the Author:
Pam Jenoff is the author of several
books of historical fiction, including the NYT bestseller The
Orphan's Tale. She holds a degree in international affairs from
George Washington University and a degree in history from Cambridge,
and she received her JD from UPenn. Her novels are inspired by her
experiences working at the Pentagon and as a diplomat for the State
Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. She lives with her
husband and 3 children near Philadelphia, where she teaches law.
