The importance of seeing and saying things as they truly are is explored to devastating effect in Mitch Albom’s new novel, The Little Liar. The author of Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet In Heaven is a master at penning heartwrenching, ultimately uplifting, life-affirming tales and is now using his enviable lightness of touch to tackle the darkest of historical subjects, the Holocaust.
Set in the thriving Jewish quarter of Salonika, Greece, the story centres on two antagonistic brothers and the girl they both love just as the Nazi war machine rolls into the city and obliterates what is left of their childhoods. Separated by circumstance but bound together by fate, the book follows the trio through the 20th century, from the hell of Auschwitz to the dizzy heights of the Hollywood hills and then back again to the place where their lives so tragically diverged – Salonika railway station, with its waiting cattle trucks.
A beautifully written and emotionally searing book that will stay with you long after you turn the final page, it’s a worthy successor to The Book Thief and a timely reminder of the need to always retain your humanity in the midst of war.
The Little Liar, Mitch Albom (Sphere)
Price: £16.99/£24.99 audiobook. Info: here
words RACHEL REES