Beloved author and New York Times bestseller Pam Jenoff discusses when she knows she's hit on the right subject for her historical fiction novels, why she's drawn to strong female characters, and why she was compelled to write this story centered around the famed Lévitan department store during WWII and its little-known history in her latest novel, Last Twilight in Paris (Park Row Books, February 2025).

What was your inspiration for Last Twilight in Paris?

When I’m researching for book inspiration, I’m looking for what I call “The Gasp” and “The Questions.” If I find a nugget of history that is so fresh and untold that it makes me gasp after more than a quarter century of working with the war, I’m hopeful that I’m onto an idea about which readers will feel the same way. For Last Twilight in Paris, The Gasp was learning about the real story of Lévitan, a former Parisian furniture store, in which the Nazis imprisoned Jews and forced them to sort, and in some cases sell, plunder from Jewish homes. Then came The Questions: What had the lives of the Lévitan prisoners been like? Why had their story remained largely untold for so many years? I knew then that I had the inspiration for my book.

How did you learn of the real-life events that the book is premised on?

I use so many sources when looking for a book idea that, to be honest, I’m not certain where I first read about Lévitan. It was most likely an online database from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum or Yad Vashem. I instantly began researching further.

How did you research the novel?

There are so many wonderful sources available for researchers today, including memoirs, periodicals, photographs, correspondence, maps, and so on, and I use all of these. I was particularly fortunate to find the two nonfiction books Nazi Labour Camps in Paris: Austerlitz, Lévitan, Bassano, July 1943–August 1944 by Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Sarah Gensburger and Witnessing the Robbing of the Jews by Sarah Gensburger, which contained so much helpful detail and photographic evidence for my research.

Why did you feel compelled to tell this story?

I was so moved by the story of Lévitan and struck by the fact that this horrific piece of history had played out right in the middle of Paris and yet was still largely unknown. I knew I had to center my novel around the store and shed new light on it.

How does this story connect to your previous novels?

The majority of my books, including Last Twilight in Paris, are freestanding. However, they share themes of strong women doing extraordinary things. There are always female friendships, deep family connections, and love—as the women who populate my stories would have really experienced. Last Twilight in Paris is particularly evocative of my novel The Lost Girls of Paris, in terms of the French setting and the mystery spanning timelines during the war and after.

What draws you to WWII fiction?

I had the privilege of serving as a diplomat for the U.S. State Department in Poland right after communism ended. The country was grappling with many issues that had never been resolved from WWII, and because of my close relationship with the surviving Jewish community, I was asked to work on issues related to the Holocaust. I have been writing books set during WWII ever since, and I regard my stories as love songs to those who lived during that most difficult era.

What is it about the stories of women in this period that you find so compelling?

Women have been so underrepresented in history. I find great joy in bringing their stories to life. I also love to take a female character who through normal events would have lived a very set life but due to war or some other catastrophe is thrown off that path and tested and challenged and to see how she will respond and grow. And through these unforeseen events, my female characters often meet other women whom they never would have encountered under normal circumstances. I like to see how they can overcome their differences to help one another survive.

How does your professional background at the Pentagon and the State Department influence your fiction?

I served as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon. This experience provided a unique chance to participate in operations at the highest level of government. In particular, during the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII, I was able to travel with my boss to commemorations in Belgium, Slovakia, and elsewhere. Later, I moved to the State Department, where I worked on many issues related to the Holocaust. These experiences provided a unique connection to the stories that inspire my books today.