The great thing about reading Mitch Albom's books is that every book read is a life added to my own. So I have already outlived cats (which are said to have nine lives) before I came to read his newest book The Little Liar. Some may quote George Martin, "the American Tolkien": "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one."
As I sunk deeper into the story of Holocaust from The Little Liar, mourning of one Jewish after another dying at the hands of the Nazis made my stomach turn, snatching the breath from me. I lost count of the lives I have lived. I lost count of the lies told by a little liar Nico Krispis who grew up in Salonkia, or modern day Thessaloniki, Greece. Nico never told a lie before the age of 11.
"Never be the ones to tell lies, Nico," his grandfather taught him when he was only five years old, at the majestic Mount Olympus. "God is always watching. It's easy to be nice when you get something in return. It's harder when nobody knows the good you are doing except yourself."
Nico's grandfather taught him that lesson about doing something for someone that can never be repaid. Like cleaning the graves of the dead. Soon Nico was dipping rags in the water and wiping the facades of strangers' tombstones, after wiping that of his great-grandfather and great-grandmother.
Nico kept his promise of honesty. Not until the invasion of his home by the Nazis. Nico escaped - but he never told the truth again. He made one forged document after another, using lactic acid to erase stamp and made false identity cards, passports, and food ration certificates. The lies of Nico simply went on. And on.
The Holocaust novel about Nico taught me a life lesson of deceits and truths.
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