“1943. 'It’s a lie.' The large man’s voice was deep and hoarse. 'What’s a lie?' Someone whispered. 'Where we’re going.' 'They’re taking us North.' 'They’re taking us to die.' 'Not true!' 'It is true,' the large man said. 'They’ll kill us once we get there.' 'No! We’re being resettled! To new homes! You heard the boy on the platform!'"
Those are the opening lines to Mitch Albom’s novel The Little Liar. The conversation is taking place on a cattle car headed to Auschwitz. The boy on the platform is eleven-year-old Nico Krispis. Because he has Aryan race coloring, Nazi officer Udo Graf is using him to lie to the Jews who are being loaded into the cars. Until that day Nico had never told a lie.
The story revolves around four main characters: Nico, his older brother Sebastian who survives Auschwitz, Fanni, their childhood friend who also manages to survive the war, and Udo Graf, second in command at Auschwitz. The story is narrated by Truth itself. I experienced this novel as an audiobook read by the author.
The story begins in 1943, detailing Nazi atrocities heaped on the Jewish people, how some managed to survive, and then decades later when Nico is a reclusive, wealthy film producer and Sebastian married to Fanni, works with an organization that searches for hidden Nazi officers hoping to bring them to justice. At the end of the book all four characters meet again.
As Goodreads says, this book is “a moving parable that explores honesty, survival, revenge and devotion.” If you’re looking for another WWII novel that works well as an audiobook, then you must read, or listen to, The Little Liar by Mitch Albom.
