The Long Road Home
Bestselling historical novelist Pam Jenoff reflects on writing, family, and the journey that changed her life.
Thirty years ago, a diplomatic assignment to Krakow, Poland, changed Pam Jenoff’s life forever.
Fresh out of graduate school and a stint as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the U.S. Army at the Pentagon, Jenoff joined the U.S. State Department as a consular officer shortly after Poland emerged from decades of communism. She became immersed in the country’s painful post-World War II history. Far from home, she became part of Krakow’s small Jewish community, where Holocaust survivors welcomed her into their lives.
“These survivors took me in like grandparents,” Jenoff recalls. “The U.S. government saw my connection with them and decided to have me work on Holocaust issues, so that became my job. It was incredibly difficult and completely transformative.”
Those experiences, paired with a writing course from Temple University, helped launch an extraordinary writing career. Jenoff has written 13 bestselling historical novels, including Last Twilight in Paris, the focus of a recent event at Penn State Abington. Her 14th novel, The Society of Forgotten Wives, will be published in February 2027.
Jenoff, who earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, now teaches at Rutgers Law School while raising her family in South Jersey. She recently returned to Poland with one of her 16-year-old twin daughters to revisit the people and places that inspired her writing.
Q&A
Tell us about your journey to becoming an author.
It’s been a long road. I joke that my overnight success was 20 years in the making. It took five years to get my first book published, and I didn’t reach the New York Times bestseller list until exactly 10 years after my first book was published. … I’m incredibly grateful [for my success], but it doesn’t really change my day-to-day life. I still eat peanut butter sandwiches on my way to work.
What were the highlights of your recent return to Poland?
Many of the survivors I was very close to have passed on because it has been many years and they were quite elderly, so the first thing I did was go to the Jewish cemetery in Krakow to pay my respects to them. It was extremely meaningful to me because I wish I had gotten back in time to see them again. I also attended [JCC Krakow’s] Ride for the Living Shabbat dinner. Then I took my 16-year-old daughter, who is deeply vested in Jewish history, to Auschwitz so she could see it firsthand.
While Poland is much more modern now with Uber and TJ Maxx and the like, the heart of the place and the people were very much the same. I instantly felt comfortable there.
How do you research your novels?
I wanted to write long before I went to Poland, but living among Holocaust survivors shaped the stories I tell. Today, research is easier thanks to online archives, newspapers, memoirs, maps, and photographs. Still, the inspiration always comes from those years I spent living among the survivors. I consider the books love stories to the people who lived through that most tragic and important era.
How long does it take you to write a book?
I’m publishing a book every two years, and I like that pace. I enjoy writing, but revision is intense, so I’m always happy when a book is finished. I don’t start another project until the current one is completely done. You have to clean up the mess in front of you before playing with the exciting new toy waiting in the corner.
How do you balance teaching and writing?
I practiced law for years while writing novels, often getting up early to write before heading to work at the Morgan Lewis law firm. I’ve taught at Rutgers Law School for about 17 years, and I love working with law students, many of whom are first-generation college students like [I was]. Storytelling helps my legal writing classes, while my legal training has made me a better editor. The two careers complement each other.
Tell us about your local roots.
I grew up in Marlton, and my mom still lives in the same townhouse a mile from me. My husband and I lived in Center City before moving to Haddonfield and then Cherry Hill, where we’ve been since 2010. I love being close to the Jersey Shore and raising my son and two daughters where I grew up. I can stand in the middle of a bookstore without anyone recognizing me, but I can’t go to the supermarket or the Katz JCC without seeing people I know.
What life lessons have you learned?
I’m not sure I have too much life advice. I have two jobs, three kids, and six pets, and I just try to do as much as I can each day until my head hits the pillow. But one quote has always stayed with me: “Buy the ticket. Take the ride.”
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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 23, Issue 4 (July 2026)
Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 23, Issue 4 (July 2026)
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