The Little Liar 

By Mitch Album

This book is part of a literary genre known as historical fiction.  The author presents the book as a novel or imagined story within the context of holocaust history.

This history concerns the 48,000 Greek Jews of Salonika (out of 50,000), who were rounded up and sent to concentration/extermination camps, the most notorious of which was Auschwitz. The story revolves around four major characters: two Jewish brothers, their Jewish female friend, and the Nazi responsible for their deportation, and later, for the administration of the Auschwitz camp itself.

The book raised many interesting questions and discussion points for the group, beginning with why write holocaust fiction? Was it necessary to interweave the characters in such a way as to have their fates coalesce in a seemingly contrived way?

A major aspect of the book had to do with themes related to truth. Truth is used by Albom as the book’s narrator. It is an interesting plot device, yet it creates more questions than it answers. In fact, the central story line (i.e., a lie, hence the title Little Liar) is contrived because it begs the question, is a lie actually a lie, if the teller is misled into believing it is the truth?

Another thought that might spring forth in the mind of a reader is that the holocaust itself was so implausible, so preposterous, so monstrously impossible, that it could not or should not ever be depicted as fiction. Given its very nature, it is much easier to no believe the truth of it.

The book selection was made, anticipating that it would not be universally accepted as a worthwhile reading experience. However, given current events, it became especially useful to maintain some historical perspective on events that are not even a hundred years old and well within our respective lifetimes.

Laurence M. Lieberman