The Gasp: A Guest Post by Pam Jenoff

A twist of fate unlocks a woman’s journey of bravery, mystery and self-discovery in this incredible novel based on a true story. Read on for an exclusive essay from bestselling author Pam Jenoff on writing Last Twilight in Paris.

When I search for inspiration for a new book idea, I’m looking for what I call “The Gasp.” If I find a piece of history that is told in such a way that it makes me gasp after more than a quarter century of working with the war, then I’m hopeful I’m onto something that will make readers feel the same way.

In the case of Last Twilight in Paris, The Gasp came from learning about a department store in Paris called Lévitan, where Jews were imprisoned and forced to sort, display and “sell” objects plundered from Jewish homes to German officers. I was curious about this piece of history and wanted to construct a story around a fictitious occupant of Lévitan. And so Helaine was born.

To learn more about Lévitan, I relied on two nonfiction books that carefully chronicle the store’s horrific wartime past as a labor camp. Witnessing the Robbing of the Jews: A Photographic Album, Paris 1940–1944 by Sarah Gensburger, and Nazi Labour Camps in Paris: Austerlitz, Lévitan, Bassano, July 1943–August 1944 by Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Sarah Gensburger. These books contained the details and photographs regarding the lives of the prisoners and operation of the camp that I needed to construct my story.

I did not just want to tell the story from the point of view of Helaine living through the horror in real time; I also wanted to construct a more “modern” narrative (in this case set in 1953) that connected Helaine to another woman who had lived through the war from a different perspective. And so we meet Louise, who is not Jewish and was not a victim of the Holocaust, but who lived through her own difficult wartime experience, first as a Red Cross volunteer, and also through the tragic and mysterious death of her best friend, Franny. Bringing in Louise allowed me to explore the complex role of the Red Cross in Europe during World War II. I learned that the Red Cross, despite its noble aims, was hampered by politics and has been widely criticized for not doing more to report the atrocities it witnessed.

I was also inspired to include Franny, a theater actress who traveled to occupied Europe ostensibly to perform for German officers and Allied POWs, but in fact was there to help with important war efforts. This character was inspired by the real-life story of Édith Piaf, who was rumored to have done the same.

Finally, these stories are connected by a mysterious half-heart necklace called a Mizpah. I have always been curious about Mizpah charms, which are hearts that break into two pieces so that lovers or other beloveds can each wear a half when they are separated. While researching for the book, I was fascinated to learn the history of these necklaces and how people have shared them to stay close during war and other historical events.

The characters in Last Twilight in Paris are fictitious, but I am so glad that they can bring to life these important and interesting pieces of history, and that they will inspire readers to want to learn more about them!