David Malman

30 years ago at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he just retired.

The story is about a boy who was born with giantism.

He's an enormous baby and becomes an enormous human being.

At the point where he reaches his late teenage years, he's close to eight feet tall.

The story is narrated by a group of people in the small town in the Amish community where the child was born.

The book becomes not so much about this boy, Gabriel the Giant, as it is about the community that he impacts just by being born into that group of people.

It's funny and odd and beautifully written.

It's been...

Tagged by some people as magical realism, it really is not.

Giantism is a real thing that people really can have.

And there's nothing magical about it, but it feels like it.

And the ending is just kind of jaw dropping.

And again, that's Life and Death and Giants.

The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem, and the author is Ron Rindov.

Yeah, I think I recommended it to you.

So a couple of things I am reading right now.

A new book by a debut author.

Her name is Sarah Maurer, M-A-U-R-E-R.

It's called A Good Animal.

And it is set in rural Upper Peninsula, Michigan, in the town of Sault Ste.