Published By: Sphere
Pages: 352
Released On: 14/11/2023
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 Fannie 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.
*****
I don’t usually review books I already own, normally only reviewing books I’ve been gifted to advanced copies, but I just had to draw attention to this one. It is absolutely beautiful, in its brutally honest way.
The story follows four characters: brothers Nico and Sebastian, childhood friend Fannie, and Nazi Udo Graf. Everything that happens relates to at least one of them, and it is through them that we travel the years.
I’ve read many WW23 books over the years, the likes of Heather Morris for instance, and they’ve all been fabulous reads, if heart-breaking, and it doesn’t matter how many I read, there’s always room for more. Generally speaking, they tend to be about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and there’s nothing wrong with that, they make for important reads and I will continue to shout about their stories whenever I can.
But this one is a little different .Yes there are the Nazis and Auschwitz and whatnot, but this is a much more human story. It’s more about the individual experiences of war and the memories it leaves, rather than the war itself. It is narrated by Truth, which was a spark of genius to begin with. This is about how war can affect a child, how trust can be won and lost, the debate between whether a truth is better even if it causes pain, or whether a lie that sooths is better. It’s full of questions, but never feels too bogged down in its own importance. At its very basic, it’s a novel and a piece of entertainment, which it is, it’s a great book, well-written, interesting, and I really enjoyed reading it. But it’s about a topic that we all need to remember, and it gives us a fresh look at a story that we have all been taught about, and it definitely stays with you.
It’s mostly set in Salonika in Greece, which I’d never heard of, and so it was interesting to learn about how they were involved in the war. We often read about WW2 in terms of Germany, France, Poland, UK etc. but we forget how widespread it was, and these people deserve remembering.
It isn’t a happy book, let me say that, but that shouldn’t be very surprising considering the topic. And yet, with all books about human atrocity, there is the underlying theme of hope against all odds. Somehow humanity, regardless of what we do to each other, still seems to cling on to this hope, and I think Mitch ahs depicted that perfectly.
I also love that he didn’t just write about the war years. Whilst we know they’re very important, obviously. But war doesn’t end on Victory Day. It stays with everyone for the rest of their lives, in different ways. For the victims, for the bereaved, for the “goodies” and the £baddies”, and he’s done well in showing us how it can affect someone 30, 40 years after it ended, which for me, made it even more powerful.
It’s perfectly pitched in terms of length. Long enough to give value to each person, but not too long that you end up bored and not caring. It’s pitched perfectly in terms of tone; it’s honest enough and sad enough for you to appreciate the events, but not so morose that you don’t want to finish it. And it’s pitched perfectly in terms of brutality. Her hasn’t hidden what happened, the random murders and beatings and starvation and everything else that went on, but it’s been used so well that it never becomes gratuitous or over the top.
I read it in less than 24 hours. It was so powerful and so phenomenally written, with such an expertise that I can’t begin to imaging the level of research that went into it, that I just couldn’t bear to put it down. If you’re a fan of warfare novels, or just want a tender story, then this is definitely one for you. It will certainly be on my favourite books of 2024 list, even if we’re only a few days in.
It’s one of those books that, no matter how many words I give it, and no matter how short or long my review is, I can’t really give value to how good a book it is, and I can’t really give value to the importance of the story.
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