Life, and Death, and Giants - by Ron Rindo

Book Synopsis

"A beautifully painted story that feels like a new modern classic." --People Magazine

Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world.

But it's hard to hide forever when you're nearly eight feet tall. At seventeen, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens next transforms not only Gabriel's life but the lives of everyone he meets.

Life, and Death, and Giants is a moving story of faith, family, buried secrets, and everyday miracles.

Review Quotes

"Straddling the Wisconsin of the Amish and 'English, ' Life, and Death, and Giants assays the limitations and temptations of the godly and the worldly. Ron Rindo has fashioned a small-town novel as magical and moral as a tall tale."- - Stewart O'Nan, author of Snow Angels and Songs for the Missing

"With Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo has performed literary magic. This is a remarkable, profoundly moving novel." -Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948

"Like all the best tall-tales, legends, and folk stories, the size and skill of the hero matters to the narrative. But what matters more is the hero's heart, and their willingness to sacrifice for a greater good to show their community and indeed, their country, what is possible, what is virtuous, what is best. The big beating heart of this novel is Gabriel Fisher, a 21st Century Paul Bunyan. But even more than Fisher is the book's writer, Ron Rindo, who has crafted a novel that is remarkably generous, kind, and graceful. This is a novel that still believes in magic, goodness, and everyday heroes." --Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and A Forty Year Kiss

"Ron Rindo's deeply attentive and broadly generous novel, Life, and Death, and Giants, makes the sturdiest of stools out of its title's three legs as it examines what happens when the mysterious interrupts the certainties we all cling to. Rindo reminds us, through his careful and loving prose, that the mysterious and the certain are always partnered, and if we choose to, if we pay close enough attention to ourselves and the worlds around us, and if we share the news of what we see, we may build our own sturdy stools, and step up, and discover the giant in us all." --Karen Shepard, author of Kiss Me Someone and The Celestials

"Life, and Death, and Giants is an intriguing and alluring novel from beginning to end. The events are startling, sad, amusing, invigorating, and informative. Reading it is like meeting a family that you never knew existed and becoming close friends in a few weeks. Highly recommended." --Jane Smiley, author of Lucky and A Thousand Acres

"Spellbinding ... surprising and moving ... This will linger in readers' minds." --Publishers Weekly

"Extraordinary ... With its profound portraits of both Amish and secular characters and their luminously real community, this is a must-read." --Kirkus (starred review)

"Life, Death and Giants is a rare novel. I found it almost unbearably moving, yet hopeful and transcendent in all the best ways. Just read it. Lose yourself in it. Be changed by it." --Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

"Skillful and meticulous ... Seamlessly blending the fantastical and the real, Rindo's novel is an elegant testament to how an entire community is touched and transformed by the open heart and generosity of one kind, gentle, extraordinary human being." --Booklist (starred review)

"Life, and Death, and Giants by Ron Rindo reads as a legit 'food for the soul' kind of novel--poignant and funny." --Real Simple

"We didn't know the name Ron Rindo before this stunning novel came our way, but we're running the fan club now." --Oprah Daily

"Reads like a warm clear word-of-mouth smash" --Chicago Tribune

"A beautifully painted story that feels like a new modern classic." --People Magazine

About the Author