Almost Home
Pam Jenoff, 2009
Washington Square Pess
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781416590705
Summary
A rich and startling novel about a woman who must face a past she'd rather forget in order to uncover a dangerous legacy that threatens her future.
Ten years ago, U.S. State Department intelligence officer Jordan Weiss’s idyllic experience as a graduate student at Cambridge was shattered when her boyfriend Jared drowned in the River Cam. She swore she’d never go back—until a terminally ill friend asks her to return.
Jordan attempts to settle into her new life, taking on an urgent mission beside rakish agent Sebastian Hodges. Just when she thinks there’s hope for a fresh start, a former college classmate tells her that Jared’s death was not an accident—he was murdered.
Jordan quickly learns that Jared’s research into World War II had uncovered a shameful secret, but powerful forces with everything to lose will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. Soon, Jordan finds herself in grave peril as she struggles to find the answers that lie treacherously close to home, the truth that threatens to change her life forever, and the love that makes it all worth fighting for. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
• Education—B.A., George Washington University; M.A., Cambridge University; J.D., University of Pennsylvania
• Currently—lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey
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. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
An interesting, unexpected thriller, this tries—and succeeds—to mix romance with the dark arts of espionage ... Written with a flair for place and irony, it paints a very different portrait of the macho world of spooks than the one we're so often treated to, but is none the worse for that. Blessed with an edge-of-the-seat ending, Jenoff's third thriller is the antidote to Bond, leaving you stirred, if not shaken.
Daily Mail (UK)
Pam Jenoff has taken a new twist on the spy novel ... if agent Jordan Weiss may not be exactly the next James Bond, ... she may be a very credible, arguably more human, female alternative.
Times (UK)
Part thriller, part romance, Jenoff's story is a tidy package of secret financing, organised crime and a bit of stuff on the side.
Time Out
A thrilling story, imaginatively told.
Choice
A cool, contemporary romantic thriller.
Publishers Weekly
...a masterly job of blending romance, friendship, loyalty, greed, spies, the political ambitions of the rich and powerful, and a bit of shady World War II history into a suspenseful and multilayered novel.
Library Journal
This thriller delivers politics and plot.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. While at Cambridge, Jordan was the only American in her group of friends. Did she feel fully accepted by her teammates, or was the fact that she was an American or a woman ever an obstacle? Did Jordan ever pretend to be someone she wasn’t?
2. "Chris once teased me about my sentimentality over what he called ‘a silly children’s film’ [Mary Poppins]. Still, perhaps he purposely chose our meeting place so close to the cathedral, since he knows how much I loved it" (pg. 62). Was this Chris’s plan? Does he attempt to manipulate Jordan throughout the novel?
3. After briefly reuniting with Chris, Jordan flees and notes "This is the second time I have fled in two days, and it isn’t like me" (pg. 72). Is this statement accurate? Consider Jordan’s career, which doesn’t allow her to stay in one place too long.
4. Jordan states that the only reason she returned to England was to care for her sick friend Sarah. However, she doesn’t spend much time with Sarah upon arriving. Is she simply too busy with work and finding the truth about Jared? What other reasons could there be?
5. Both Chris and Jordan note how driven Jared was. Why was he so determined to seek the truth?
6. "A meeting would provide an emergency escape hatch if the day in Cambridge got to be too much" (pg. 87). Are there other examples in the book of Jordan taking precautions to protect herself? Do you think these measures are a result of Jared’s death, her work with the State Department, or something else?
7. Jared remarks to Jordan that Chris "can’t stand going home alone" (pg. 126). Is this true? If so, why? And why doesn’t Chris openly share his feelings with Jordan, either before her relationship with Jared or a decade later?
8. "Social justice, my father told me once at Passover, was our obligation as Jews, to free all people from the bonds of oppression as we had once been freed" (pg. 189). Is this desire what drives Jordan? Even though she says she’s not religious, in what other ways might her religion shape who Jordan has become?
9. What could be the reason for Jared strangling Jordan while the two are both sleeping?
10. Why does Mo acquiesce to Ambassador Raines? How much of his plan was she aware of?
11. Several people end up betraying Jordan. When did you first become suspicious of these characters or the novel’s other twists? Is there anyone Jordan can truly trust?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)