The Little Liar by Mitch Albom | Book Review

Synopsis

Beloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with a powerful novel that moves from a coastal Greek city during the Holocaust, to America, where the intertwined lives of three survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption. Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis never told a lie. When the Nazi’s invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading to “new homes” where they are promised jobs and safety. Unaware that this is all a cruel ruse, the innocent boy goes to the station platform every day and reassures the passengers that the journey is safe. But when the final train is at the station, Nico sees his family being loaded into a large boxcar crowded with other neighbors. Only after it is too late does Nico discover that he helped send the people he loved—and all the others—to their doom at Auschwitz. Nico never tells the truth again. In The Little Liar, his first novel set during the Holocaust, Mitch Albom interweaves the stories of Nico, his brother Sebastian, and their schoolmate Fanni, who miraculously survive the death camps and spend years searching for Nico, who has become a pathological liar, and the Nazi officer who radically changed their lives. As the decades pass, Albom reveals the consequences of what they said, did and endured. A moving parable that explores honesty, survival, revenge and devotion, The Little Liar is Mitch Albom at his very best. Narrated by the voice of Truth itself, it is a timeless story about the harm we inflict with our deceits, and the power of love to ultimately redeem us.

Review

“The Little Liar” introduces Nico, Sebastian, Fanni, and Udo Graf in a World War II setting, narrated by the “Truth.” Albom, as always, weaves characters magically, bringing their diverse stories together.

The simplicity of the writing makes the book an easy read for anyone. The World War II backdrop, a heartbreaker, adds emotional depth. Nico’s story, among the four characters, struck a chord with me. Despite being successful, he leads a lonely life, burdened by guilt for unknowingly harming his family.

I enjoyed the book, and appreciated Albom’s narrative style. However, having read his other works, “The Little Liar” fell a bit short of my expectations. Still, it’s a good read, and it’s nice to revisit Albom’s storytelling after a while.

Quotable Quotes

It is not your memories which haunt you. It is not what you have written down. It is what you have forgotten, what you must forget. What you must go on forgetting all your life.

But here is the funny thing about truth: the less real something seems, the more people want to believe it.

People say many things. Some are true. Some are lies. Sometimes, if you say a lie long enough, people believe it’s the truth.

It’s easy to be nice when you get something in return. It’s harder when nobody knows the good you are doing except yourself.

Sometimes, it is the truths we don’t speak that echo the loudest.

A man, to be forgiven, will do anything.

Truth is a straight line, but human life is a flexible experience. You exit the womb curling into a new world, and from that moment forward, you bend and adjust

It is a sad fact I have noticed with humans. By the time you share what a loved one longs to hear, they often no longer need it.

Some lies are easier to believe than the truth.

You have deated for centuries about what true love means. Some say it is when another’s happiness means more to you than your own. Others say when you cannot imagine the world without your partner. For me, true love is easy. It’s the kind where you do not lie to yourself.

The truth of love is that when it fades away, you don’t really care less. You don’t care at all.

To keep harmony, there are things you might not say even if you know them to be accurate. It is, technically, an act of deceit. It is also an act of love. The two are more connected than you think.

The more you confront the truth, the more upset you are likely to become.

Humans are broken. Susceptible to sin. They were created with minds to explore, but often choose to explore their own power. They lie and these lies let them think they are God. Truth is the only thing that stops them.

Rating: 3.5/5