The Little Liar

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-9

Part 1, Chapters 10-19

Part 2

Parts 3-4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Themes

The Destructive Power of Lies

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the novel’s depictions of genocide, antisemitism, and extreme violence.

In The Little Liar, the author makes it a point to illustrate just how devastating the consequences of bending the truth can be. The premise of the novel revolves around a lie, one told by 11-year-old Nico Krispis on a train platform in Salonika, Greece. Nazi SS officer Udo Graf tells Nico that if he promises the people being forced into train cars to Auschwitz that they are going to be taken to a new home, Udo will reunite Nico with his family. Nico is fully deceived and encourages thousands of people to board the trains that will carry them to their deaths. This lie contributes to the catastrophic destruction of the Jewish community in Salonika, whose population dwindles to less than 2,000 surviving members after the war (“Salonika.” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Upon realizing the full extent of his unintentional lie, Nico becomes a pathological liar and spends his life trying to atone for his actions. Truth, the narrator, states, “The boy would survive. But Nico Krispis would die that afternoon and his name would never be used again” (92), and this quote highlights the fact that deception harms the liar as much as the targets of the lie itself. This particular lie results in thousands of people being sent to Auschwitz, where they face unimaginable suffering and inhumane conditions.

Throughout the novel, the author employs metaphor and parable to explain the nature of truth and lies. Truth explains that humans deal with truth and lies in the same way they fill their plates with food, by “choos[ing] a sliver of Truth here, a sliver there [and] disregard[ing] parts that displease” (28). However, the narrator also likens this method to unhealthy eating, stating that “just as ignoring proper food will decay your body, so will handpicking the Truth eventually rot your soul” (28). This powerful comparison also implicitly includes lies of omission, and this scenario is explored when Fannie herself decides to lie by omission, choosing not to tell Gizella of a dangerous encounter with a customer. Fannie’s decision has drastic consequences for both her and Gizella, as she is captured and Gizella is arrested. Fannie’s lie by omission shows the widespread impact that lies can have.

Finally, Albom portrays the destructive power of lies through the visceral reactions that characters have in response to betrayal. Aside from Nico, who becomes a pathological liar after learning that he unwittingly perpetuated the cruelest of lies, Udo’s reaction to a lie also has dire consequences. When Nico tells the crowd gathered for the memorial walk in Salonika that the true perpetrator of the violence and death, Udo, has died alone, Udo yells in outrage that Nico is lying, and his reaction to Nico’s lie ultimately leads to Nico’s death and Udo’s arrest and subsequent murder. In this case, lying functions as a destructive power that has significant and often unforeseen consequences.

The Complexity of Human Relationships

In the midst of describing the atrocities of war, the author also makes it a point to focus on the deep complexity of human relationships. Albom frames this theme with the assertions that humankind is messy and that the true matters of the heart are rarely as they seem. As the narrator, Truth, puts it, “[H]armony and humankind make a short marriage. Something always seems to happen” (43). Prime examples of this theme can be found in the two brothers’ commingled stories and choices. Because Sebastian has feelings for Fannie, he finds himself growing jealous of Nico’s friendship with her. As Nico and Fannie are left inside of the Krispis family’s home when the others are forced to vacate it, Sebastian chooses not to alert his family to Nico’s presence because of his jealousy. This choice alters the lives of all the characters and leads them down different paths. Nico’s relationship with Sebastian is further complicated by Nico’s actions on the train platform. Sebastian’s existing jealousy adds to the anger and resentment that he feels toward Nico, and as a result, he blames Nico for the atrocities that occur at Auschwitz, assigning him the same degree of responsibility as he does Udo Graf, the Nazi SS officer in charge of the death camp. Sebastian’s feelings of jealousy therefore skew his interpretations of other matters. When he sees Nico face-to-face for the first time in 40 years, he finally feels “tears welling up, as if decades of misplaced anger were melting behind his eyes” (317), and the forgiveness he grants his brother is driven by his father’s last words and the understanding that Nico was manipulated to lie to everyone on the train platform that day.

The novel also explores the hidden complications that often lurk within marriages of convenience. When Sebastian and Fannie spontaneously decide to marry after the war, Truth explains, “At that moment, at such a young age, it would be safe to say that Sebastian was fulfilling an adolescent dream, while Fannie was clinging to the only piece of her old life that was left. It was not a thoughtful marriage” (208). Given that this statement is made by Fannie herself in the narrative guise of “Truth,” the narration, in retrospect, becomes imbued with an unspoken sense of Fannie’s wry regret and compassion for the young, traumatized people that she and her ex-husband used to be. Their initial urge to cling to each other is not enough to overcome the essential mismatch in their personalities, and years into their marriage, Sebastian and Fannie begin to drift apart. Sebastian’s obsession with seeking revenge against Udo is utterly incompatible with Fannie’s desire to move on from her experiences during the war. As Fannie’s narration explains, “As the years passed, those ghosts whispered differently to Fannie than to Sebastian. Hers was just her father, who said, ‘Live your life.’ His was three generations murdered in the camps, screaming in his head, ‘Avenge us!’” (232-33). The pair’s contrasting needs ultimately cause the relationship to unravel, leading to Fannie’s decision to leave Sebastian. In this way, the author explores the myriad effects that wartime trauma can have on those who manage to survive such times, as subsequent relationships become tangled and complicated in unexpected ways.

The Devastation of the Holocaust

Mitch Albom’s The Little Liar takes place before, during, and after World War II and explicitly depicts the devastation of the Holocaust, examining the ways in which these events impact the survivors long after the war concludes. Highlighting the experiences of four characters from 1936 to 1983, the novel provides unique perspectives into multiple facets of the Holocaust and its long-term effects. The antagonist of the novel is also given his own point of view to emphasize the fraud and cruelty that Nazi war criminals continued to employ after the war.

At the beginning of the novel, Nico and Sebastian’s grandfather, Lazarre, reassures his son Lev, the boys’ father, that the Nazis have no power to damage their vibrant and active community. He urges his son to “‘[l]ook at how many Jewish newspapers there are. Look at how many synagogues we have” and insists that “[n]o one can destroy such things” (22). His sentiments emphasize the depths to which Jewish culture is ingrained in Salonika at this time, but given the overarching knowledge of the atrocities to come, his words take on a foreboding tinge of dramatic irony. The juxtaposition of Salonika’s Jewish population and community before and after the war portrays the unprecedented extent to which the Holocaust damaged the Jewish community in Salonika.

Just as Lazarre’s denial of the encroaching Nazi regime illustrates the utter disbelief that the events of the Holocaust could ever come to pass, Sebastian’s perspective offers insight into the conditions and atrocities that occurred at the Auschwitz death camp during World War II, exploring the ways in which hatred and anger can foster long-term violence. As Truth explains, “It was a time in human history where the world [was divided between] those doing nothing about the horror and those trying to stop it. A world of light and dark” (104). These words acknowledge the ethical dilemma that each person faced during this time, highlighting the willful ignorance that perpetuated the violence that occurred during the Holocaust. Sebastian’s visceral descriptions of his surroundings drive home the depths of the horrors he survived; as he says of his arrival in Auschwitz, “The living must stumble through the dead, stepping gingerly over their lifeless husks, as if trying not to wake them” (98). These dire conditions succinctly summarize the ongoing atrocities of the camp as the violence grows and the death toll rises, causing Sebastian to conclude, “There was no God here. There was no God anywhere” (158). Thus, while Sebastian himself does not become a literal casualty of the Holocaust, his inner faith does, and this moment highlights one of many ways in which the Holocaust devastated those who managed to survive it. By contrast, Fannie’s experience of running and hiding during the Holocaust provides insight into the stakes of being found by the Nazis or their sympathizers. Her story also demonstrates that those who attempted to help the Jewish refugees in hiding risked their lives alongside their charges, as they, too, could have been imprisoned or killed in punishment for their empathy. However, Nico’s discovery of the camp when it is finally liberated provides the most emphatic descriptions of the horrors contained within the walls of Auschwitz; his realization and horror are palpable as he explains, “Behind the destroyed crematorium was a mountain of ash that had once been human beings. The stench of death was everywhere” (178). This image is designed to convey the sheer horror and massive scale of the atrocities involved.

While Albom dedicates considerable effort to acknowledging the horrors of the Holocaust, he also emphasizes the fact that these horrors did not magically vanish with the end of the war. Albom therefore uses his characters to demonstrate the lifelong struggles of the Holocaust’s deeply traumatized survivors, who often found themselves without homes or resources in a shattered world. Upon her return to Salonika, for example, Fannie points out that her culture has been erased from the city. The once-lively Jewish city has been replaced by people who purchased the houses from those who usurped the Jewish residents’ homes and destroyed their lives. In her guise as Truth, Fannie comments, “Although she recognized certain landmarks, everything within them had changed […] She saw no Jewish men with graying beards, or Jewish women wearing shawls. She heard no Ladino being spoken” (187). In this moment, she stands as a representative of all survivors who helplessly beheld the utter destruction of the world they knew. Thus, this moment portrays the loss of culture and faith that occurred in the most populous Jewish community in Europe.