The Little Liar by Mitch Albom is a very readable tale of loss of innocence and the compassion, because of Nazi brutality.
The book is a story of four people, three of them children. They live contended lives in the Greek city of Salonika where they learn to grow knowing and respecting the truth. Then the Nazis arrive, and these are Jewish children.
Nico, who was always taught by his grandfather to be honest, is recruited by the Nazi commander because of this to tell the people being sent off in trains that they are going to be OK. They will be given jobs and homes. IT is only when he sees his own family being forced onto the train that he realises the lie and the role he has played in telling it.
Nico will never tell the truth again, but he will spend his life seeking redress for the evils carried out on his people.
Meanwhile his brother and Fanni have their own stories to tell. This is the Second World War and the Holocaust, and the stories are not easy to read or comfortable, but they do continually reinforce a message of commitment and hope.
The fourth character in the book is Udo Graf, the Nazi leader in Salonika, who becomes the commander of Auschwitz. He gets to know Nico’s brother in the death camp after leaving Nico behind in Greece. He has his own story to tell.
The book follows the stories of these people through horror and brings them into a future where they all have a price to pay for their past.
The book follows all four characters through decades in which, although they all survive, they all have a reaction to their experience and a duty to perform.
Written in a simple way, the book raises complex questions about truth, revenge and redemption. It is certainly worth a read.
