The Little Liar, by Mitch Albom

There are many books about WW2, but this one comes at a time when dangerous authoritarianism is rising in the world once again. On pg 260 of this book: "Time passes. People forget. Then we rise again." The "we" means Nazis in the book. It also means, today, those who look upon certain ethnicities as 'lesser-than,' even as SUB-HUMAN. As though there could actually be a "supreme race," as the Nazis thought. This book gets solid thumbs up. Mitch Albom writes concisely, without the need for endless gory details. Albom has a message, and this page-turner hits the nail on the head.

SUMMARY

Much like the book, The Book Thief, whose narrator is "Death," the narrator for The Little Liar is "Truth." Ah, but whose truth is true? And how does one identify any "truth" as truly true? This is the question Mitch Albom examines. For truth always comes with context. Sometimes, a small (or big) lie comes from a place of love. Other times, lies come from a place of innocence. And then there are lies intended to inflict pain, torture... How does one parse these lies? Or "truths"? 

Set in Salonika, Greece, in WW2, a city with the largest population of Jews pre-WW2, we find the Krispis family -- mother, father, oldest son Sebastian (14), youngest son Nico (11), and twin daughters -- plus grandfather Lazarre. As the book jacket tells us: "Eleven year old Nico Krispis has never told a lie." Nico learned from his grandfather never to lie. Thus, on the day in 1943 when Nazis gathered Salonika's Jews and ushered them to the train depot (en route to Auschwitz), a Nazi officer (Udo Graf) who had stumbled upon this "truth-telling Jew," used Nico to persuade "all the Jews" to peacefully board the trains. Udo Graf assures Nico that the trains will relocate his family to a place with homes and jobs. Graf tells Nico: "This is the only way to ensure your family's safety." And so, Nico...lies, though he doesn't know he's lying until it's too late. From that day on, Nico is known as the "little liar."

The four main characters, about whose lives this book swirls, are: Nico, his older brother Sebastian, a girl that both boys happen to like (love?), Fannie, and the monster Udo Graf. 

I could see myself re-reading this book someday. For the express reason of pondering how truth & lies are so interconnected, sometimes told with the best intentions, but with bad results. One example from my life, is how I kept the character of my sons' dad from them post-divorce. I hid so much, so that one day, when it spilled out, they became... disillusioned with me. (And this is why this blog remains anonymous.)