The Little Liar
The moving, life-affirming WWII novel from the internationally bestselling author of Tuesdays with Morrie
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'Moving' Daily Mail
'It will stay with you' Independent
'Profound' Irish Examiner
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A moving new novel from the beloved author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven
When the Nazis invade Salonika, Greece, eleven-year-old Nico Crispi is offered a chance to save his family. He is instructed to convince his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading towards the east, where they are promised jobs and safety. He dutifully goes to the station platform every day and reassures the passengers that the journey is safe. Only after it is too late does Nico discover that the people he loved would never return.
In The Little Liar, Nico's story is interweaved with other individuals impacted by the occupation: his brother Sebastian, their schoolmate Fanni and the Nazi officer who radically changed their lives. As the decades pass, the consequences of what they endured come to light.
Exploring honesty, survival, revenge and devotion, The Little Liar is a timeless story about the harm we inflict with our deceits, and the power of love to redeem us.
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Five-star reader reviews of The Little Liar
'An amazing story about truth, war, humanity and loss'
'Another beautiful piece of work by the author. He makes you feel like you are there, know everybody and feel every emotion'
'Within an exciting and thought-provoking story, without preaching or proselytising, the author invites us to contemplate Truth, and how it is often the first causality of war''
'Excellent interwoven stories by a master storyteller. Meaningful insights we can use today'
'This book nearly broke me'
'I love Mitch's books, but this is the best of all of them'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The riveting if rushed latest from Albom (The Stranger in the Lifeboat) explores the legacy of the Holocaust on the Jewish community in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 1943, canny SS officer Udo Graf manipulates 11-year-old Nico into encouraging his neighbors to board a train to be resettled with their loved ones. When Nico sees his parents board the train, he realizes he's been tricked. He soon learns the train was headed to Auschwitz, and is wracked with guilt. After the war, Nico settles in Los Angeles under another name. In a parallel narrative, Nico's older brother, Sebastian, who blames Nico for sending their parents to their deaths, is searching for Nico as well as former SS officers. Albom is at his best tracing the brothers' trajectories after the war, describing how Sebastian comes to marry Nico's crush, Fannie, and portraying Fannie's unrequited love for the absent brother. Unfortunately, Albom races through the climactic final act, set in 1983, when Nico plans to return to Thessaloniki for an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first Auschwitz transport, and Sebastian, working with a Nazi hunter modeled after Simon Wiesenthal, is hot on Graf's trail. Still, this adds up to a weighty examination of the Nazis' lies and their lingering consequences.
