Chapter 25 Summary: Nico, from Lie to Lie
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
At nearly fourteen, Nico has grown six inches, gained weight, and abandoned the truth entirely after his family’s betrayal in Salonika. He carries a leather bag that once belonged to Udo Graf, which contains the passport of a dead German soldier, Hans Degler. Nico travels to Edessa to get a photograph to alter the passport. He finds a barber, Zafi Mantis, who agrees to take his photo. When Nico returns three days later, Mantis and his sons, Christos and Kostas, ambush him and search his bag. They discover Nazi badges. Nico yells in Greek that he works for “Herr Udo Graf,” inadvertently revealing his Greek origin. Mantis deduces Nico is Jewish and, after a tense exchange, takes him to a hidden attic where a forger named Papo works. Nico translates a Nazi arrest list for them—a list that targets Romani families for deportation in two days. Grateful for the warning, Papo agrees to alter Hans Degler’s passport with Nico’s photo. Nico asks to learn forgery and, when Mantis announces they are fleeing, declares he will travel with them.
Key Events
- Nico’s physical transformation and complete adoption of lying as a survival mechanism
- He uses Hans Degler’s passport and Udo’s bag to pass as a German
- In Edessa, a barber takes his photograph for a passport-size picture
- The barber and his sons ambush Nico on his return, seizing his bag
- Nico blurts a threat in Greek, revealing he is not actually German
- Mantis recognizes Nico’s Salonika accent and deduces he is a Jew on the run
- Mantis delivers Nico to Papo, a forger, who asks him to translate a German document
- Nico learns the document orders the arrest of Romani families on August 28
- Papo examines Hans Degler’s passport and offers to alter it with lactic acid
- Nico asks Papo to teach him forgery; Mantis reveals the family is leaving town
- Nico decides to join the Romani group as they flee
Character Development
Nico: Once a boy who never lied, Nico now lives through deception. His physical growth mirrors his loss of innocence. He adopts false identities, speaks German with a phrase book, and lies instinctively. His decision to join the Romani family shows he still craves connection, yet he continues to hide his true name, giving himself the alias “Erich Alman.”
Zafi Mantis: The barber is a Romani father hiding from the Nazis. He is suspicious and protective. His initial violence gives way to grudging respect after Nico translates the list. He ultimately hands the bag back and permits the forgery.
Papo: The forger is a calm, skilled craftsman who works under the guise of an artist. He immediately recognizes the value of a German passport and seems to recognize Nico’s loneliness. He calls his grandson “Mantis,” indicating the barber is his son, and offers to help.
Christos and Kostas: Mantis’s sons assist in the ambush but remain silent. They are background figures representing the Romani community under threat.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Lying as a new language: The narrator states that saying true things reminds Nico of his role in his family’s death. Lies become his only mode of speech.
- Identity and reinvention: The forger’s workshop is “a place of reinvention, where old identities could be destroyed and new ones created.” Nico’s attempt to become “Erich Alman” literalizes his inner transformation.
- Shared persecution: The narrator compares the Romani genocide (Porajmos) to the Holocaust, noting that the Nazis considered them “as poisonous as the Jews.” Nico’s warning to the forger echoes his own family’s fate.
- The bag as symbol: The leather bag that held Udo’s belongings now carries Nico’s survival tools. It is both a reminder of his betrayer and a source of possible future good.
- Adolescence as a pounce: The narrator describes puberty arriving “as pounce,” linking physical change to moral change.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 25 solidifies Nico’s irreversible departure from his childhood self. The reader witnesses him become the “good little liar” Udo wanted him to be. More importantly, Nico crosses paths with Romani resisters who forge documents—a crucial historical detail that widens the story beyond one boy’s plight. The chapter introduces a new community that will likely shape Nico’s journey forward. It also deepens the novel’s meditation on complicity: Nico’s honesty condemned his family, but his lies now keep him alive, raising the question of whether any moral choice is truly clean. The narrator’s painful tone throughout this chapter suggests that Nico’s loss of truth is as devastating as any physical harm.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Nico choose to lie after his family is taken? Nico believes that his earlier honesty—telling Udo the truth about hiding places and money—led directly to his family’s arrest. To avoid that unbearable guilt, he behaves as if truth itself is poison. Lying becomes a way to distance himself from reality and from his own accountability.
2. What role does the forger’s community play in the chapter? The Romani community hiding in Edessa represents another group targeted by the Nazis. They are resourceful, creating false documents to survive. By helping Nico alter the passport, they provide him with a new method of survival. In return, Nico warns them of the impending arrests, creating a mutual reliance that challenges his lone-wolf approach.
3. Why does the narrator call the Romani genocide “worse” than being Jewish? The narrator does not claim it is objectively worse, but instead relays the forger’s mumbled “Worse” as a reflection of the Romani experience under the Nazis. The narrator then explains that the Wolf (Hitler) labeled them Zigeuner and “enemies of the state,” and that soldiers were particularly cruel. The comment underscores the theme that all targeted groups suffered unimaginable horror.