A dual timeline that is just about a decade apart. A sweet love story of Helaine and Gabriel who were torn apart when the war was at Paris's doorstep. Helaine gives Gabriel a family heirloom, a necklace that has a matching piece to the one she wears as he goes off to play his Cello in an orchestra in Germany. She as a Jew needs to learn to adapt to the horrors of living within a country that hates her for her beliefs. Taken prisoner she was treated slightly better by being forced to work in a recycling facility. All that was confiscated from the Jewish community was sorted by them to send to Germany or be resold to German soldiers.
Louise is adjusting to life after the war. Married, raising her twins and working in a charity shop. There she finds a necklace that she knows she has seen before. Somehow that necklace is connected to the mysterious death of her friend who volunteered for the Red Cross with her during WWII. Not able to let go of the past she heads to Paris for answers. Reconnecting with her former Red Cross boss who she had once feelings for, she hopes with his help they could solve the mystery surrounding the necklace.
This story is primarily about the store and Helaine from one timeline, and Louise, working backwards to find her. It’s sad and poignant and at the same time brave to try to tell the stories of the lost. I know it’s fiction but I’m also sure the story represents the situations most will never hear about. I enjoyed the interwoven pieces that led to the connections to complete the story. It was just as mesmerizing as all of this author's work. I am a long-time fan.
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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