The Diplomat's Wife
A Novel
Pam Jenoff
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
One woman faces danger, intrigue, and love in the aftermath of World War II in this unforgettable novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris.
1945. Marta Nederman has barely survived the brutality of a Nazi concentration camp, where she was imprisoned for her work with the Polish resistance. Lucky to have escaped with her life, she meets Paul, an American soldier, who gives her hope of a happier future. The two make a promise to meet in London, but Paul is in a deadly plane crash and never arrives.
Finding herself pregnant and alone in a strange city, Marta finds comfort with a kind British diplomat, and the two soon marry. But Marta's happiness is threatened when the British government seeks her help to find a Communist spy—an undercover mission that resurrects the past with far-reaching consequences.
Set during a time of great upheaval and change, The Diplomat's Wife, a gripping early work from Pam Jenoff, is a story of survival, love and heroism, and a great testament to the strength of women.
THE KOMMANDANT’S GIRL SERIES
The Kommandant’s Girl, 2007
The Diplomat’s Wife, 2008
The Ambassador’s Daughter, 2013
About the Author
Pam Jenoff is the New York Times bestselling author of historical novels centered on the Second World War and the Holocaust. Her fiction gives voice to Jewish survivors, rescuers, and resisters, and to the quieter, often overlooked stories of women in wartime Europe.
Her work draws on a distinctive background. She earned degrees from George Washington University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon, and she later worked for the U.S. Consulate in Kraków, Poland, on Jewish communal and heritage issues. That experience shaped her debut, The Kommandant’s Girl, and her many novels set in occupied Poland and beyond.
Her books return to themes central to Jewish memory: hiding and rescue, the fragile bonds of family and chosen family, the moral complexity of survival, and the long aftermath of loss. The Winter Guest follows Polish sisters sheltering a Jewish American soldier. The Orphan’s Tale centers on a Jewish infant, a circus troupe, and the women who protect him. The Woman with the Blue Star tells of Jews hiding in the Kraków sewers. The Lost Girls of Paris traces women of the Allied resistance.
Jenoff lives near Philadelphia with her family and teaches law at Rutgers Law School.