Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo
Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo
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Life, and Death, and Giants
A Novel

Author: Ron Rindo

Narrator: Christina Moore, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne, Will Damron

Unabridged: 11 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/09/2025

Synopsis

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

"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

This program features multicast narration.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press

About Ron Rindo

RON RINDO is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He has published one previous novel, Breathing Lake Superior, and three short story collections. He lives in Pickett, Wisconsin.

About Johnny Heller

Johnny Heller was named a Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Award Winner—one of the highest honors in the audiobook industry—in 2019. He has recorded over 1,100 audiobooks in every genre and is a five-time Audie Award winner and a 15-time nominee. He is a 2020 Odyssey Award winner and a 2023 Communicator Award winner for his work on Winnie the Pooh.Johnny was named an AudioFile Best Voice 2009-2011, 2014-2016, 2020, and 2024. He is a Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award Winner 2008-2018 and a multiple Booklist Editor’s Choice Winner. A winner of over 40 Earphone Awards and 4 SOVAS Awards, Johnny was named one of the top 50 Voices of the 20th Century by AudioFile.

About Will Damron

Will Damron is an actor, author, and two-time Audie Award–winning narrator. He has performed over 800 audiobooks across all genres, and is the recipient of three SOVAS Voice Arts Awards and numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards. Will is known for his smooth and evocative narration—often imbued with gravitas and realistic tension—as well as the wide range of characters and accents he can convincingly portray. He loves that he is able to connect with audiences around the world through his performances, and share in the joy of a true emotional journey with them.He and his wife, fellow narrator January LaVoy, live in Atlanta with their dog, Sir Toby Belch.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Shelley's Book Nook on September 03, 2025

My Reviews Can Also Be Found On: The Book Review Crew Blog I loved this book so much. It's about an unmarried Amish woman who gives birth to an eighteen-pound baby (and I thought my babies were big at nine and eleven pounds) and dies shortly afterward. The baby, Gabriel, is raised by his older brothe......more

Goodreads review by Terrie on September 13, 2025

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY 9/9/25!!! Intriguing. Startling. Extraordinary. Moving... This is the story about Gabriel Fisher, who was born unusually large to an unwed, shunned Amish mother, who doesn't survive his birth. He walks early, has an uncanny chemistry with animals, and an undeniable athletic a......more

Goodreads review by Debra on September 06, 2025

What a wonderful book. It is full of BIG Characters with many moving scenes. Gabriel Fisher was born to an unwed Amish mother who would not name his father. She was shunned and cast out and unfortunately did not survive his birth. Gabriel has always been big - he was eighteen pounds and measuring tw......more

Goodreads review by Karen on August 03, 2025

Such a beautiful story ❤️ Set in an Amish community in Wisconsin. Hannah Fisher’s daughter Ruth lives alone with her son Jasper across the land from her Amish parents Hannah and Josiah. Ruth has been banished from the church and community for many years since she was pregnant with Jasper. When this hap......more

Goodreads review by Will on September 17, 2025

At age one, Gabriel Fisher weighed thirty-four pounds and stood forty-one inches tall. It was not only Gabriel’s unusual size that dazzled Thomas, but also his unusual way with animals. As a three-year-old boy, Gabriel would often sit on a milking stool beside Jasper’s chicken coop with a piece o......more

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

"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

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