The Little Liar

“But with Nico, I offer you a story of consequence, one that heretofore has never been told. It concerns deception, great deception, but also great truth, and heartbreak and war and family and revenge and love, the kind of love that is tested over and over.”

Truth foreshadows the events that take place in the rest of the novel by framing the story as a parable. A parable is a story that uses symbolism to illustrate a moral lesson. In the case of The Little Liar, the moral of the story in question emphasizes the damage that lies can cause even as it advocates for healing past wounds through forgiveness.

“But there is always a purpose to cruelty. The Germans wanted to change me. They wanted the Jews of Salonika to accept a new version of the Truth, one in which there was no freedom, no faith, and no hope. Only Nazi rule.”

Truth explains that the Nazis wanted to create a twisted version of the truth to enforce their beliefs. One of the most significant themes that is discussed within the novel is the destruction and aftermath of the Holocaust. Here, the author demonstrates that the Nazis’ intentions were to destroy Jewish culture and lives by redefining the truth in such a way that their acts of cruelty would usurp the position of law, poisoning whole countries with the shadow of atrocity.

“You choose a sliver of Truth here, a sliver there. You disregard the parts that displease you, and soon your plate is full. But just as ignoring proper food will ultimately decay your body, so will handpicking the Truth eventually rot your soul.”

The narrator uses an analogy that compares people’s pickiness over food to their propensity to only embrace palatable truths. By implying that the most palatable truths are also the least accurate, the narrator delivers a sharp social commentary on those individuals who historically chose to disbelieve or ignore the growing evidence of the horrors inflicted during the Holocaust. In this way, the quote highlights The Destructive Power of Lies.

“He should have been happy seeing his brother alive. He should have yelled to his mother ‘He’s safe! He’s in there!’ Part of him wanted to. But another part—which felt that if anyone should be protecting Fannie it should be him—trembled in silent rage. So he did not say a word. And with that silence, he changed his brother’s life forever. Sometimes, it is the truths we don’t speak that echo the loudest.”

Sebastian’s relationship with and feelings toward his younger brother, Nico, explore The Complexity of Human Relationships. While Sebastian loves and cares for his little brother, he is overcome with jealousy and leaves his brother and Fannie alone in the house that has been commandeered by Nazi soldiers. Truth therefore discusses the problematic nature of the lie of omission, something that characters repeatedly grapple with throughout the novel.

“Why would a lamb be protected from a wolf simply by walking alongside it?”

The metaphor of the lamb and the wolf depicts the power dynamics at play during the Holocaust. The wolf, which is also a name that Adolf Hitler chose for himself, foreshadows the violence Hitler will inflict during the Holocaust. The image also foreshadows Udo’s betrayal of Nico, whose innocence is similar to that of the lambs.

“‘A man, to be forgiven, will do anything’ he said.”

The story of the White Tower is referred to several times throughout the novel. Nico’s own story and his quest for forgiveness are largely based on the words of his grandfather. Nico, after realizing the harm that his unwitting lie has caused, spends his life trying to earn forgiveness for his actions. This quote is repeated several times in the novel, illustrating its significance to the characters and their respective paths of development.

“[P]eople turned away whenever Truth got close. They covered their eyes. They ran in the other direction…covered in new pleasing colors, Truth was welcomed warmly—by the same people who had once run away.”

Taken from one of Truth’s parables, this quote reflects the fact that people prefer to run from uncomfortable truths and will only willingly embrace harsh realities that are softened or obscured. In this parable, Truth tries to speak to humans “naked” but is met with fear and resistance. Only by dressing in “pleasing colors” can Truth find a way to reach the people. The parable illustrates the way in which humans are often unwilling to accept the “naked” truth.

“‘You were a good little liar,’ he said. ‘Be grateful that you’re alive.’”

With the cruelty of this offhand comment, Udo reveals his ruse to Nico and leaves the boy alone in the aftermath of his deception. The moment also highlights the novel’s title and implicitly explains its significance, and as Nico goes on to use deception as a deliberate tool in his lifelong attempts to make amends, the SS officer’s heartless words take on a new depth and meaning. Ultimately, Nico’s long, desperate road of lies will lead him to proclaim his own unspoken inner truth and thereby gain the absolution he long has sought.

“The boy would survive. But Nico Krispis would die that afternoon and his name would never be used again. It was a death by betrayal, on a day of many betrayals, three on a train platform, and countless more inside of those suffocating cattle cars, no heading to hell.”

The consequences of Nico’s lies transform countless lives in addition to his own. As Udo’s betrayal reflects The Destructive Power of Lies, the narrator emphasizes the profound ways in which this early experience annihilates Nico’s existing sense of self. As he goes forth into a world of lies of his own making, his compulsion to lie and embrace new identities reflects his undying shame for the person he used to be.

“The living must stumble through the dead, stepping gingerly over their lifeless husks, as if trying not to wake them.”

The destruction and aftermath of the Holocaust is extensively portrayed through the different journeys of the four main characters. Here, the cruelty and brutality of the conditions of the train cars and death camps is depicted using stark and eerie imagery that compares the dead to “lifeless husks” and those who are sleeping.

“It was a time in human history where the world was cleaved in two, those doing nothing about the horror and those trying to stop it. A world of light and dark.”

Truth briefly explains the politics of the Holocaust, defining it as an international issue that resulted in a worldwide division between those who chose to remain bystanders and those who actively worked to end the genocide. By contextualizing this historical time frame with the binary opposition of “light” and “dark,” the author uses color symbolism to explain that choosing to do nothing, much like an omission of truth, is an evil act that ultimately encourages the violence to continue.

“Nico became, as Udo had labeled him, ‘a good little liar,’ undoing a lifetime of honesty overnight. This is not without precedent. Did Adam not lose paradise with a single bite of an apple? Was Lucifer not a good angel before his eternal expulsion? We are all one fateful act from a redirected destiny, and the price we pay can be immeasurable. Nico paid such a price.”

The Destructive Power of Lies is illustrated clearly within this quote. As Nico is equated to two biblical figures, Adam and Lucifer, the author shows that one “fateful act” can change a person’s life completely. Like those of Adam and Lucifer, Nico’s transgressions negatively impact the rest of his life.

“His shifting jobs gave him a wider view of the camp and how to survive it. He snatched potato peels from garbage bins. He scooped dog food from bowls. He made connections with other Greek prisoners, who shared information about which block had the fewest inspections, or which guards could be distracted. They invented nicknames to identify them.”

Resilience is a recurring motif that helps to emphasize the ways in which people fought against the destructive nature of the Holocaust. This quote depicts the ways in which Sebastian strategizes to find additional food and gain information and assets despite the vigilance of the Nazi guards, thereby ensuring his survival.

“Never be ashamed of a scar. In the end, scars tell the story of our lives, everything that hurt us, and everything that healed us.”

Lazarre tells Sebastian not to be ashamed of his scars and to look at them as evidence of his resilience, a motif that is prevalent throughout the story. This moment foreshadows the scar that Sebastian will later receive from Udo Graf when he exposes him to the Soviet soldiers on the day the camp is liberated.

“Some lies are easier to believe than the truth.”

As Nico leaves the Romani family that he was traveling with, the grandfather of the family tells him about an old Romani saying on the nature of lies and truth. This quote parallels an earlier moment in which Truth explains why so many Germans believed the lies that Hitler spread about Jewish people and their culture. This concept also becomes a catalyst for the justification of more lies; as the novel depicts, real relationships are messy and complicated. Nico uses this philosophy as a reason to change his identity to fit into his surroundings as he travels.

“Until this point, like many soldiers around him, he had believed places like Auschwitz were labor camps. Hard labor, certainly. But not like this. Not a killing ground. He had honestly expected to find his family alive, waiting for liberation. But the Wolf’s deceits had fooled even the little liar. It was left to Truth to open his eyes. I am the harshest of virtues.”

The Destructive Power of Lies becomes apparent in the moment that Nico enters Auschwitz for the first time and is shocked to discover the truth of the horrors that have occurred there. Hitler’s lies about what was occurring at the camps had insurmountable consequences and led to the deaths of millions of innocent people. This quote also touches on the theme of the destructive nature of the Holocaust itself, illustrating the true extent of the devastation within the death camps.

“Although she recognized certain landmarks, everything within them had changed, and everyone moving about them seemed different. She saw no Jewish men with graying beards, or Jewish women wearing shawls. She heard no Ladino being spoken.”

Upon returning home to Salonika, Greece, Fannie discovers that while the outline of the city is the same, it has been filled with different people. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, fewer than 2,000 Jewish people remained in Salonika, a number that illustrates just how destructive and devastating the Holocaust was for Jewish communities around the world (“Salonika.” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

“The world felt so alluring, so full of promise. Now, Fannie wants nothing to do with the world. She just wanted to sit still…Where would she go now? What would she do? She had been hiding for so long, freedom felt like its own prison.”

After returning to Salonika, Fannie feels extremely displaced and unsure of her next step in life. As she surveys the world from the top of the White Tower, her emotions are juxtaposed with the thoughts of her younger self, who stood in the same location before the Holocaust. This contrast reflects her loss of innocence and portrays the depths of internal change that she has endured due to her horrifying experiences during the Holocaust.

“[T]he lies spouses tell one another are often omissions…You justify these acts by deeming me, the Truth, too agitating. Why stir things up? Why make waves?”

Lies of omission are often employed from a desire to spare someone else's feelings or to avoid confrontation. However, the complex nature of the truth combined with The Destructive Power of Lies can render lies of omission just as harmful as other, more overt lies. This moment foreshadows Truth’s revelation that the actual narrator of the story is Fannie herself. Just as the narrative warns against using lies of omission, the final part of the novel reveals the narrator’s true identity. This missing knowledge is designed to compel readers to reconsider the events of the story and contemplate how the meanings of certain scenes shift with the knowledge that Fannie is the one providing the overarching commentary.

“‘Some terrible things may have been done.’ We were kings. And will be again. ‘If so, such inhumanity is not right.’ Unless your victims are subhuman. ‘I regret what others may have done in the name of our nation.’ I regret nothing.”

As Udo is interrogated by a United States government agent about his role in Auschwitz, he lies by omitting several truths. First, he omits his own eager participation in the genocidal killing at Auschwitz. He also omits his belief that under certain circumstances, it is right to inflict such inhumane acts upon a person or group of people. Udo’s omissions reflect the complicated nature of the truth and illustrate the fact that lies are destructive and can have dire consequences.

“Their love was less for each other than for all of the ghosts around them. As the years passed, those ghosts whispered differently to Fannie than to Sebastian. Hers was just her father, who said, ‘Live your life.’ His was three generations murdered in the camps, screaming in his head, ‘Avenge us!’”

The Devastation of the Holocaust is explored throughout the novel. Fannie and Sebastian’s unique experiences and interpretations of what occurred fosters conflict that ultimately leads to the destruction of their marriage. This moment depicts the ways in which the events of the Holocaust continued to damage the Jewish community beyond World War II.

“Tell the world what happened here.”

As the old man from the river gives Fannie the money needed for a plane ticket to New York, he repeats the call to action that Fannie was given years ago as she was thrown off the train to Auschwitz. The repetition of the term emphasizes its significance through the story, as it is later revealed that the narrator, Truth, is actually Fannie. By telling this story now, she is finally able to bring her own truths to light.

“At that moment, he could only hear his father’s final request. Find your brother one day. Tell him he is forgiven. ‘You can stop atoning now.’ Sebastian finally whispered.”

Forgiveness is a significant motif that explores the complexities of human relationships. Throughout the novel, Sebastian’s resentment toward Nico for the lies the boy told as a child grows increasingly severe the older that Sebastian becomes. However, once the brothers are reunited and the complicated truth of Nico’s deception is revealed, Sebastian’s anger slowly melts away as he sees his brother again for the first time in 40 years.