The Little Liar

Truth explains that in the following 22 years, the main characters change in different ways. On Nico’s way back to Hungary in 1946, he almost gives a train conductor his German passport instead of his Hungarian one. Gunther, the German man sitting next to him, notices his mistake and confronts him about his identity. Gunther tells Nico that he can make both of them rich if Nico gives him a Hungarian passport. As a Nazi soldier, Gunther hid crates of gold and jewelry that were stolen from the Jewish prisoners. He tells Nico that he knows where some of the crates are and offers to share the gold if Nico gives him a Hungarian passport.

Three months later, Nico and Gunther arrive at a church in the small town of Zsámbék. Inside, they find four crates full of gold and jewelry and load them onto their truck. As Gunther attempts to brag by showing Nico what they’ve stolen, a young boy shoots and kills him. The boy tells Nico that Gunther killed his father and states that he should return the stolen gold to its original owners. In the following years, Nico uses some of the money to continue his education and perfect his English. After his graduation from college under the name of Tomas Gergel, he becomes Nathan Guidili, the name of the inmate who painted the White Tower. He travels to California and ends up in Hollywood, remembering that Katalin told him that he should be in movies.

Three weeks after returning to Salonika, Fannie and Sebastian are married. They move south to the island of Crete and have a daughter named Tia. Fannie is content to be a mother, but Sebastian is plagued by his memories of Auschwitz. On their daughter’s fourth birthday, the pair argue about Nico’s intentions on the platform that day. Fannie believes that Nico was deceived, but Sebastian does not care about Nico’s intentions, only the results. Sebastian brings up the day that Nico and Fannie were trapped together in the crawlspace and angrily questions Fannie about what happened. Despite knowing that Fannie was a child when she loved Nico, Sebastian constantly wonders if she still prefers his brother.

One day, he reads about a man called the “Nazi Hunter” who works to find former Nazis. Sebastian sends a letter to the man, detailing his experience in Auschwitz at the hands of Udo Graf. Four months later, the Nazi Hunter invites him to come to Vienna and informs him that Udo has escaped. Sebastian is determined to move to Vienna and help the Nazi Hunter. Fannie does not understand why he cannot leave the war behind. She accuses him of wanting to help the Nazi Hunter in order to find and hurt Nico, and although Sebastian does not admit to this, Truth explains that Sebastian wants to make sure that Nico faces justice for his actions.

In 1947, Udo is now living in Buenos Aires. He knows that the US government is employing former Nazis to work against Soviet Russia. One day, a man brings Udo a letter from Washington, DC, inviting him to work in the United States. Six months later, he works in a laboratory in Maine under the name of George Mecklen. During an interview with a federal agent named Ben Carter, Udo pretends to have little knowledge or involvement with Auschwitz, claiming to regret the atrocities that were committed.

Later, he works as an official spy for the United States government, gathering intelligence about the Soviet Union. In the 1950s, he marries an American woman named Pamela to help bolster his secret identity. He also reads about the famed Nazi Hunter but does not worry about the man, believing that nobody would cross the ocean to hunt him down. However, in 1960, one of Hitler’s top architects is captured in Argentina, convicted, and executed, and Udo decides that he needs to gain enough power to stop the Nazi Hunter’s efforts. He reinforces his relationship with former agent Ben Carter, who is now running for a seat in the state Senate; Carter is sympathetic to the Nazi cause. One night, an inebriated Carter reveals that his campaign has been jeopardized by a woman who he was secretly helping to smuggle diamonds into the country. Udo asks for her name and stalks her for several days before killing her. Carter wins his election, and Udo secures a permanent spot on his staff.

When Nico arrives in California, he immediately asks how to get into the movie business. He receives his first part as an extra, acting as a background soldier in a battle scene. The actor that he works with asks him if he served in the war. Nico tells the man several lies, claiming to have killed many Nazis. The man announces this to everyone, and they cheer for Nico. After the scene is filmed, Nico decides to fund movies instead of acting in them.

Nico begins working at a studio under the name Nathan Guidili and determines which ideas should be made into movies. He is highly successful, but he struggles to sleep and becomes dependent on sleeping pills. Nico constantly has nightmares about the war. As a result, he begins to hold all of his meetings at night, and people in the film industry celebrate his “eccentricity.” One day, the owner of Nico’s studio confronts him about his forged diploma; a reporter has discovered that no one by the name of Nathan Guidili attended the London School of Economics. Nico states that he hung up the diploma to impress other people, and the studio owner tells him not to worry about it. Three months later, Nico decides to quit his job and open his own studio.

Sebastian forces Fannie and Tia to move to Vienna so he can work with the Nazi Hunter. Fannie gradually falls out of love with Sebastian as he becomes increasingly consumed with helping the man. After Tia leaves to attend university in Israel, Fannie takes a trip without Sebastian and goes to Hungary. Upon being reunited with Gizella, Fannie sobs and apologizes profusely for her mistake all those years ago. Gizella was arrested and tortured for several weeks when Fannie was discovered, but she was released when a priest from her church paid an undisclosed amount of money. She is now in a wheelchair and is blind in one eye. She and Fannie spend several weeks reconnecting. Gizella reveals that for a few years after the war, a red-haired man would come every August 10 and deliver money. Fannie is shocked to hear this, remembering that she was forced onto the train to Auschwitz on that same date.

That afternoon, Fannie walks to the Danube River and sees a man reciting Hebrew prayers. The man tells her that his daughter was killed there by Nazi soldiers. He is extremely happy to hear that Fannie is a survivor of that night. The man tells Fannie that there were rumors that the actress Katalin Karády saved a group of children from execution. Fannie asks where to find Katalin because she believes that Nico worked with her. The man says that Katalin now lives in New York City as a hat shop owner. He also gives her enough money to buy a plane ticket to New York, asking her to pay him back by “tell[ing] the world what happened here” (245). Three weeks later, Fannie is in New York City.