“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

A heart too big for this world.
A life that changes everyone.

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.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

This was one of my most anticipated fall reads, and while it didn’t land quite as hard as I hoped, and I struggled with certain elements, the book still holds a quiet power.

At the center is Gabriel Fisher, a boy whose life begins with tragedy. His Amish mother dies giving birth to him, and he is raised by his grandparents.

Gabriel is different. Enormous in size, walking before he turns one, gifted with uncanny abilities. He’s a figure destined to become legend. People in his Wisconsin community don’t know what to make of him, and over the years, Gabriel becomes a kind of myth whispered about in farmhouses and town squares.

The choice to tell Gabriel’s story through the eyes of others is both the book’s strength and its weakness. On one hand, we get a wide-angle view of how his presence shapes the people around him. On the other hand, it created a certain distance. Because we never live inside Gabriel’s head, I felt like I never fully knew him. He’s always interpreted, never self-revealed. For me, that kept the book from landing the emotional punch I was hoping for.

The character I had the hardest time connecting with was Hannah, Gabriel’s Amish grandmother. She’s a major presence in his life. She’s a loving, complicated woman and her story arc is interesting, but what kept me from fully connecting with her was her strict Christian faith. I’m not religious, so I struggled to connect with her motivations. Readers who share or better understand her worldview may find her more rewarding than I did.

That said, the book still worked for me in many ways. The writing is touching and, at times, inspiring. Gabriel’s sheer size is never treated as a gimmick. Instead, it’s a lens for exploring what it means to be different, and how an extraordinary life affects those who know and love them.

I read this one while listening to the audiobook, and I think the audio helped the story sink in deeper. Christina Moore, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, and Will Damron narrate, each voicing a different perspective. Since the book is told through multiple POVs, the multi-cast format was perfect. Each narrator gave their character a distinct presence, which made the shifting perspectives flow more smoothly.

If you enjoy novels that straddle the line between myth and realism, and you don’t mind stories told about the MC rather than from their POV, this one’s worth your time. It’s tender, sometimes frustrating, and often moving. It’s an interesting look at the ripple effect one extraordinary life can have on a community.