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The Little Liar

A Novel

Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

Beloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with his most important novel to date, an unforgettable story of truth and lies set during the Holocaust.

Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis has never told a lie. When the Nazis invade his home in Salonika, Greece, the trustworthy boy is discovered by a German officer, who offers him a chance to save his family. All Nico has to do is persuade his fellow Jewish residents to board trains heading "north," where new jobs and safety await. Unaware that this is all a cruel ruse, the innocent boy reassures passengers on the station platform every day.

But when the final train is loaded, Nico sees his family being herded into a boxcar. Only then does he discover that he has helped send them—and everyone he knows and loves—to their doom at Auschwitz.

Nico escapes—but he never tells the truth again.

In The Little Liar, Mitch Albom examines the human repercussions of deception by interweaving the stories of Nico, who yearns for forgiveness; his older brother, Sebastian, who vows revenge against him; Fannie, the girl who must choose between them; and Udo Graf, the Nazi officer who forever changed their lives with his lies.

Through the war years, the concentration camps, and the decades that follow, Albom reveals the consequences of each person's honesty and dishonesty, bringing them back to where it all started in a staggering climax worthy of the best of Albom's internationally embraced stories.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 23, 2023
      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. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary.

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2024

      In 1943, SS officer Udo Graf manipulates 11-year-old Nico into convincing his neighbors to board trains heading to "new homes." Officer Udo promises Nico and his neighbors that the trains are going to Poland, where Jewish families are assured jobs and safety. Nico soon realizes he has told a devastating lie when his family is loaded into a crowded boxcar headed to Auschwitz. After the war's end, Nico settles in the United States, while his brother Sebastian, who blames Nico for sending their parents to their deaths, searches for Nico and for former SS officer Graf. Narrating his own novel, Albom (The Stranger in the Lifeboat) brings the story to life, adding just the right inflection to every word. He fleshes out the characters' personalities and creates visual scenes that encapsulate each person's distinct culture and background. His voice is gentle and soft, tenderly embodying the novel's deep feeling; this emotive presentation will have listeners utterly invested in the story's outcome. VERDICT Albom's latest explores betrayal, survival, and revenge against the backdrop of the German occupation of Greece during World War II. The author's many fans will be well satisfied.--Anna Ching-Yu Wong

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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