Beginning ~ with a lie

Beginning

"It's a lie."

The large man's voice was deep and hoarse.

"What's a lie?" someone whispered.

"Where we're going."

"They're taking us north."

"They're taking us to die."

"Not true!"

"It is true," the large man said.  "They'll kill us once we get there."

"No!  We're being resettled!  To new homes!  You heard the boy on the platform!"

The Little Liar ~ by Mitch Albom, 2023, historical fiction, 352 pages

Eleven-year-old Nico Krispis has never told a lie.  His schoolmate, Fannie, loves him because of it.  Nico’s older brother Sebastian resents him for both these facts.  When their young lives are torn apart during the war, it will take them decades to find each other again. 

Nico’s innocence and goodness is used against his tightly knit community when a German officer barters Nico’s reputation for honesty into a promise to save his loved ones.  When Nico realizes the consequences of the betrayal, he can never tell the truth again.  He will spend the rest of this life changing names, changing locations and identities, desperate to find a way to forgiveness — for himself and from the people he loves most.

This powerful novel of hope and forgiveness moves from a coastal Greek city during WWII to America in the golden age of Hollywood, as the intertwined lives of three young survivors are forever changed by the perils of deception and the grace of redemption.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings.