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Book by: Pam Jenoff
Review by: Dr. Wendy Hooper-Meletes, Ed.D., owner of Litchfield Books
As a diplomat, the author handled Holocaust issues in Poland. Today, she teaches law in Philly and is grateful for book communities; she has long said they make her life possible to portray history and fiction. Pam‘s inspiration for Last Twilight in Paris found her looking for “The Gasp” in history. She learned about plundered furniture from Jewish homes being given to German officers during wartime and was compelled to write this story centered on the L’evitan department store during WWII. As she quills this story that is so untold, it makes her gasp that a delicate balance existed nearly a century ago between the betrayal of imprisoned Jews, friendships of other women who lived through difficult wartime experiences, courageous women who helped one another to survive and beloveds that hoped to be reunited.
Paris, 1942. Helaine and her husband, Gabriel, a top Cello Player, are separated during the war. Gabriel must leave the Country to play in an Orchestra, and Helaine is Jewish, so eventually, she ends up imprisoned at a Nazi labor camp in an attic of a Paris department store. When the Germans invaded France, high-ranking German officials shopped for their wives or girlfriends, allowing Paris fashion to remain very much alive under the Nazi occupation throughout WWII. The contents of Jewish apartments became essential needs. Working under harsh conditions, working on the docks of the warehouse from Jewish homes to polishing delicate porcelain on the main floor of the department store, Helaine imagines the families that had owned the furniture.
London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife and discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, certain she had seen the necklace before when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe. The necklace holds the key to the mysterious death of her performer friend Franny, who helped so many who suffered during the war. With help from former boss and lover Ian, Louise attempts to deliver the necklace to its owner only to discover the dark history of Lévitan.
Jenoff masterfully turns this novel into a dynamic history of Nazi looting and shifts away from the focus on Nazism. The story has a dual timeline and is told from the two main character’s points of view. Come and meet the author on her pub day, February 21, 2025, at DeBordieu Country Club, Georgetown, SC.
Ticket info: www.litchfieldbooks.com/events