New Release: The Little Liar
By Mitch Albom (2023)
I will preface this review by saying that I have not devoured a book so quickly as I did this one in a good few years. I couldn’t put it down.
“You can trust the story you are about to hear. You can trust it because I am telling it to you, and I am the only thing in this world you can trust. I am the shadow you cannot outrun, the mirror that holds your final reflection. I am truth. And this is a story about a boy who tried to break me.”
When the Nazis invade the Greek island of Salonika (or, Thessalonika), thousands of lives are changed. We follow the perils of four of these lives.
Eleven-year-old Nico has never told a lie. After being discovered by a German officer, he is groomed into telling a lie with a detrimental consequence. On a train station platform, Nico tells his Jewish community that what awaits them at the end of this train journey is a new life; new homes, and lots of jobs. Little does Nico know, the train’s final destination is Auschwitz. Believing that he has lost his whole family because of this lie, Nico never tells the truth again.
Narrated by ‘Truth’ itself, this book follows the lives of Nico, his brother Sebastian, their friend Fannie, and SS officer Udo Graf, as they navigate the rest of their lives after one lie changes their fate forever. The use of a seemingly omniscient narrator is unusual, and makes for a very original read.
Like many Holocaust stories, there is both heartbreak and true despair - what Albom does is expertly intertwine the two, making for a story of courage and strife, underpinned by truth.
I had little knowledge of the Nazi invasion of Greece, I am ashamed to say. Albom paints a well-researched picture of a part of history often ignored. Though it is a work of fiction, the use of characters as mouthpieces for real stories is evident, and makes the story all the more hard-hitting. You will carry these stories with you for a long time after putting the book down.
Let’s turn to the more technical aspects of this book. I can’t fault the pacing of this book at all; it had me hooked from the opening line, and kept a remarkably ticking pace with every turn of the page. This is down to two things: 1. the way that Albom sections off the story by character and time, and 2. the story itself is full of action. Perhaps, it is also the shock factor of the horrors that occur at the hands of the Nazis that encourages us to continue reading. We become invested, and come to care about the characters. We ultimately want to see atonement for the pain caused.
Whilst I understand criticism of Alboms’s ‘tell, not show’ style of writing, I feel that, personally, it is tight, concise, and is a great contributor to the pace of the story.
Consequence, remorse, and atonement are key themes. I appreciated the way the story continued after the liberation of the camps - we got to see what became of each character, which does not happen often. It felt as though Albom did not see the end of the war as the ‘end’ of the story, but the beginning of new lives; adjusting to society, dealing with trauma, and rebuilding. The structure of the plot and themes of truth and consequence remind me greatly of Ian McEwan’s Atonement.
Having an SS officer as one of the four “protagonists” was an interesting choice. I understand criticism of this, however I think it was valuable to go inside the mind of someone you so vehemently disagree with. It is both uncomfortable and disturbing - but this is what makes good literature. Sometimes, being made uncomfortable shows you your morality. Albom was in no way attempting to sympathise, but instead to explain, show ties to modern politics, and prove why the phrase ‘Never Again’ is so important.
This review is longer than usual - I had so many thoughts whilst reading, and each thought led to another, and so on. My concluding statement will be that this is one of the best books I have read this year, it is thought-provoking, informative, and heartbreaking. A true masterpiece.