The Little Liar

The narrator’s identity is revealed to be the personification of truth. Truth asks readers to trust this story about a boy who changes names and lives after the Holocaust.

Truth introduces Nico Krispis in Salonika, Greece, in the year 1936. Nico, while playing a game called abariza with his friends, admits to having been tagged, and his friends ask why he always tells the truth. Truth comments that Nico always told the truth and was very attractive; he never told a real lie until he was 11 years old. Many people would comment on Nico’s attractiveness, stating, “He does not look Jewish” (11). He also earned the nickname Chioni, or “snow,” for his purity.

Truth explains that there are three other characters that continuously interact with Nico’s story: Sebastian, Fannie, and Udo Graf. Sebastian is Nico’s older brother; he has romantic feelings for Fannie. Sebastian is envious of the pampering that Nico receives from their family, but he loves his brother regardless. Fannie has romantic feelings for Nico, who is in her class at school.

After Fannie escapes from the window of the train car, a German officer enters and questions the prisoners about the open window. He beats one of the prisoners until a woman reveals who removed the grate; the German officer then kills the man before stating that one person may leave the train. When no one answers him, he chooses a mother who is holding her infant. He demands that the woman hand him her child before she leaves. The woman begs him not to take her baby, and the officer, now holding the child, throws the baby out the window, claiming that he has kept his promise. The German officer’s name is Udo Graf.

Truth tells readers about their origins on Earth, claiming that when God contemplated creating man, Truth advised him not to because the humans would “be false and tell lies” (17). God cast Truth out of heaven. Truth claims that, while people debate the reasons for God’s decision to expel them from heaven, they believe they were “hurled to earth to smash into billions of pieces, each of which finds its way into a human heart” (18), to allow them to thrive or perish.

In 1938, Nico’s family celebrates the marriage of his aunt Bibi. Nico discusses the significance of tradition with his grandfather Lazarre. After the wedding, the family passes a closed shop with a newspaper in the window that discusses events occurring in Germany. Lev, Nico’s father, asks Lazarre if it is possible for Hitler’s beliefs to spread. Lazarre assures Lev that Hitler is “crazy” and that the Jewish community in Salonika is too large to be destroyed.

In 1941, Lev returns home from the Greek offensive against Italian invasion. The Greek offensive was successful until winter came. Then the Italian forces asked for assistance from the German army. Lev tells Lazarre about the futility of his fight against the German soldiers and recounts the deaths of many of their community members. Nico approaches his father, who, despite his emphasis upon valuing the truth, lies to Nico and tells him that they prevailed over the Germans.

In July of 1942, the Nazi soldiers who now roam the streets of Salonika gather all of the Jewish men in Liberty Square. There, the Nazi officers force the men to endure nonstop calisthenics; if the men stop or fall, they are attacked by the Nazi officers and their dogs. Lev is determined not to fall. He sees German women watching them, laughing and taking pictures; the bystanders do nothing but watch. This day is known as “the Black Sabbath,” a day in which the German forces violated the Jewish holy day of the Sabbath to humiliate them publicly and break their spirits. Truth remarks that the purpose of this was to create a new version of the truth in which the Nazis are seen as holding absolute power. Nico approaches the square, and one of the German guards mistakes him for a German child and offers to lift him up to see Liberty Square. Nico notices an officer approaching, Udo Graf. Udo winks at Nico.

Truth states that humans treat the concept of truth in the same way that they treat food, by picking and choosing what is palatable to them rather than accepting what they know is healthy. Truth then explains how this concept is related to the rise of a person called “the Wolf,” who gained power in Germany; the “Wolf” is the chosen name of Adolf Hitler, the supreme commander of the Nazi regime. Truth explains that Hitler “climbed to power on the back of lies” by creating a false truth blaming the Jewish people as the cause of all German woes (29). Truth explains that Udo Graf was a young man whose mother left his father for a Jewish man; Udo’s father then died by suicide. Udo decided to join Hitler’s forces and became a midlevel commander in the Nazi SS. In the summer of 1942, Hitler sent Udo to Salonika to remove every Jewish citizen from the city.

One Sunday, in the fall of 1942, Lazarre brings Nico, Fannie, and Sebastian to the Jewish cemetery just outside the city gates; it is the largest Jewish cemetery in the world. Lazarre finds the graves of his parents and begins to pray in Hebrew. After the prayer, Lazarre begins to clean the gravestones, explaining the value of doing something kind and expecting nothing in return. The children, inspired by this concept, begin to clean the graves of strangers. Truth explains that this is the last time they will visit the cemetery before it is destroyed.

In January of 1943, as Lev, Nico, and Sebastian are in Lev’s smoke shop, two Greek men enter the store. The men are surprised to see Lev still there and show him a paper that explains that, under the German occupation, Lev’s shop must be handed over to the two Greek men. Lev refuses to leave his shop, and several minutes later, Lev, Nico, and Sebastian are shoved out the door by two Nazi officers. They are never allowed to set foot in their tobacco shop again.