November 2014
Photo © Dominic Episcopo.
Pam Jenoff was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England. Upon receiving her master’s in history from Cambridge, she accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army. The position provided a unique opportunity to witness and participate in operations at the most senior levels of government, including helping the families of the Pan Am Flight 103 victims secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and attending ceremonies to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II at sites such as Bastogne and Corregidor.
Following her work at the Pentagon, Pam moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this period that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust. Working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland, Pam developed close relations with the surviving Jewish community. Pam left the Foreign Service in 1998 to attend law school and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She worked for several years as a labor and employment attorney both at a firm and in-house in Philadelphia and now teaches law school at Rutgers.
Pam is the author of The Kommandant's Girl, which was an international bestseller and nominated for a Quill award, as well as The Diplomat's Wife, The Ambassador’s Daughter, Almost Home, A Hidden Affair and The Things We Cherished. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and three children.
What are you reading? What's on your nightstand?
Just finished The Hours Count by Jillian Cantor. Presently reading The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg. Next up The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks.
Where do you go to get inspired?
With two jobs and three kids, I don’t always have the luxury of a “going” somewhere for inspiration. I draw inspiration from my everyday life, family, a good run…
What's something that surprised you recently (in a good way)?
One day I suddenly realized that the manuscript I was working on was done. For months and months it seemed like it would never be a book and then it was.
Where do you write?
I have written in mountain top reatreats and castles, but also in my car and my doctor’s waiting room. I prefer to write in my office early morning, but I can write anywhere.
What/who makes you laugh? Why?
My kids! It’s a party all the time. We never close and we definitely laugh more than we sleep.
Favorite fictional character ever?
I can’t say I have just one, but right now it is Jo in Little Women because she in some ways inspired Addie in The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach.
What are you working on?
I am so very excited to tell you that my next book, THE AERIALIST, will be out in early 2017. It was inspired by two actual stories and it tells of a young woman who rescues an infant from a Nazi train car full of babies headed east, and finds shelter with a German circus that is rescuing Jews. Stay tuned!
"Jenoff (The Ambassador's Daughter, 2013) specializes in stories of forbidden love with dramatic wartime settings. Here, twins Helena and Ruth live in the small Polish village of Biekowice…Helena is a resourceful and brave heroine with a bit of a lucky streak, while Ruth shows her mettle in the novel's heart-pounding ending. Brisk, romantic, and emotionally satisfying."
—Booklist
"In Jenoff's eloquent follow-up to The Diplomat's Wife, conflicted Margot accompanies her German diplomat father to Paris for the treaty negotiations following WWI…A tale of surprise betrayals, unquenchable desire, and a necessary awakening, Jenoff's thorough and elaborate descriptions of character and setting makes for a satisfying period romance."
—Publishers Weekly
"Charlotte Gold and Brian Warrington, high-powered attorneys who used to be a couple, suddenly find themselves working together on an international war-crimes case…A powerful novel rich in period detail, The Things We Cherished is a fascinating contemporary and historical drama, a unique glimpse into a disappearing world, and a reminder that past and present often come together in unexpected ways."
—Booklist
"With luminous simplicity, Jenoff's breathtaking debut chronicles the life of a young Jewish bride during the Nazi occupation of Kraków, Poland, in WWII. Emma Bau, a shy librarian, escapes the city's Jewish ghetto with the aid of the underground resistance movement that Jacob, her activist husband, has already joined…This is historical romance at its finest."
—Publishers Weekly
The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by
Summer 1941 Young Adelia Montforte flees fascist Italy for America, where she is whisked away to the shore by her well-meaning aunt and uncle. Here, she meets and falls for Charlie Connally, the eldest of the four Irish-Catholic boys next door. But all hopes for a future together are soon throttled by the war and a tragedy that hits much closer to home. Grief-stricken, Addie flees-first to Washington and then to war-torn London-and finds a position at a prestigious newspaper, as well as a chance to redeem lost time, lost family...and lost love. But the past always nips at her heels, demanding to be reckoned with. And in a final, fateful choice, Addie discovers that the way home may be a path she never suspected.
The Winter Guest by
A stirring novel of first love in a time of war and the unbearable choices that could tear sisters apart, from the celebrateD author of The Kommandant's Girl Life is a constant struggle for the eighteen-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbor against neighbor. Though rugged, independent Helena and pretty, gentle Ruth couldn't be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats the war brings closer to their doorstep with each passing day. Then Helena discovers an American paratrooper stranded outside their small mountain village, wounded, but alive. Risking the safety of herself and her family, she hides Sam-a Jew-but Helena's concern for the American grows into something much deeper. Defying the perils that render a future together all but impossible, Sam and Helena make plans for the family to flee. But Helena is forced to contend with the jealousy her choices have sparked in Ruth, culminating in a singular act of betrayal that endangers them all-and setting in motion a chain of events that will reverberate across continents and decades.
The Ambassador's Daughter by
Paris, 1919. The world's leaders have gathered to rebuild from the ashes of the Great War. But for one woman, the City of Light harbors dark secrets and dangerous liaisons, for which many could pay dearly. Brought to the peace conference by her father, a German diplomat, Margot Rosenthal initially resents being trapped in the congested French capital, where she is still looked upon as the enemy. But as she contemplates returning to Berlin and a life with Stefan, the wounded fiancé she hardly knows anymore, she decides that being in Paris is not so bad after all. Bored and torn between duty and the desire to be free, Margot strikes up unlikely alliances: with Krysia, an accomplished musician with radical acquaintances and a secret to protect; and with Georg, the handsome, damaged naval officer who gives Margot a job-and also a reason to question everything she thought she knew about where her true loyalties should lie. Against the backdrop of one of the most significant events of the century, a delicate web of lies obscures the line between the casualties of war and of the heart, making trust a luxury that no one can afford.
