LIFE, AND DEATH, AND GIANTS

A giant boy with colossal gifts is born in a Wisconsin Amish community.

Rindo’s second novel, following several story collections, reveals a writer at the height of his powers. Its title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem; at the center of the tale is a well-worn book of Dickinson’s work. Passed to an Amish woman, Hannah Fisher, in a cedar chest of her mother’s things she receives when the older woman dies, it represents a secret rebellion against the strictures of their faith via Dickinson’s humanist spirituality. As the book opens, Hannah’s daughter, Rachel, is in the throes of labor, and her 17-year-old son, Jasper, brings her to the local veterinarian, Thomas Kennedy, for help, but she dies shortly after delivering an 18-pound infant, Gabriel. Rachel has never named the father of either boy, and she’s long been excommunicated for keeping her silence. Thomas Kennedy and Hannah Fisher are among a group of four residents of rural Lakota, Wisconsin, who pass the narrative torch in this gorgeously constructed and written novel. The other two are Billy Walton, the proprietor of the local bar and sponsor of the T-ball team where Gabriel will begin his protean sports career, and Trey Beathard, a disgraced college football coach who takes over the local high school program and becomes one of Gabriel’s mentors. Each of them has a unique voice; Hannah’s is particularly beautiful and captivating: “Each morning since my baptism at age seventeen I have awakened from the soft death of sleep, and my first thought, always, has been: Lord, Thy will be done. I do not say it for my own credit. It has not been easy.” And it’s only going to get harder as her grandson Gabriel’s life unfolds. Gabriel himself is a mythic creation: Suckled on goat milk, he has a profound bond with animals, and his legend grows as quickly as he does, reaching a size of almost 9 feet and 600 pounds. Rindo’s writing about animals and nature, about Amish faith, about art and sports—including pro wrestling!—is extraordinary. At the heart of his concerns is the battle between good and evil as expressed in human kindness and human weakness, embodied in unforgettable characters.

With its profound portraits of both Amish and secular characters and their luminously real community, this is a must-read.