Ron Rindo’s 2025 literary novel, Life, and Death, and Giants, is a multigenerational saga set in the fictional town of Lakota, Wisconsin. The story chronicles the extraordinary life of Gabriel Fisher, a boy born with pituitary gigantism to an excommunicated Amish woman. Raised first by his older brother and later by his devout Amish grandparents, Gabriel’s size and strength eventually propel him from his quiet, rural world into the public spotlight as a national sports celebrity. The narrative unfolds through multiple perspectives, exploring themes including The Struggle for Faith in the Face of Suffering, The Isolation and Exploitation of the Extraordinary Individual, and The Tension Between Communal Obligation and Personal Freedom.

The author, Ron Rindo, taught for many years at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and has published several other works of fiction, including the novel Breathing Lake Superior and multiple short story collections, often set in the American Midwest. The novel’s premise is grounded in a specific historical case; in the novel’s acknowledgments, Rindo notes that his inspiration came from the life of Robert Wadlow (1918-1940), the tallest person in recorded history. Rindo also conducted extensive research into the Old Order Amish communities of central Wisconsin, where the novel is set, lending cultural and social authenticity to the story’s central conflicts between faith, family, and the modern world.

This guide is based on the 2025 St. Martin’s Press first edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of ableism, gender discrimination, death, pregnancy loss, child abuse, child sexual abuse, death by suicide, substance use, addiction, illness, emotional abuse, cursing, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Set in the rural crossroads of Lakota, Wisconsin, a community defined by poverty, independence, and a fierce desire for anonymity, the novel opens with the extraordinary birth of Gabriel Fisher. Dr. Thomas Kennedy, a veterinarian who left Milwaukee after his wife Angela’s death, has been practicing large-animal veterinary medicine near Lakota.

One day, 17-year-old Jasper Fisher arrives with his mother, Rachel, unconscious in the bed of a pickup truck. Rachel has been in labor for days, but, on religious grounds, she forbade Jasper to call an ambulance. Thomas discovers Rachel carries a single, very large fetus. Using a lambing snare, he delivers an 18-pound baby boy. Rachel breastfeeds the child before dying minutes later. The boy is named Gabriel.

The story unfolds through multiple narrative voices, one of which is Hannah Fisher, Gabriel’s Amish grandmother. Hannah recounts a life shaped by faith, loss, and the tyranny of her father, Absalom Yoder, a volatile sawmill operator capable of shocking cruelty. After her mother dies, Hannah discovers a hidden book of Emily Dickinson’s poems in her mother’s cedar chest, filled with marginal notes in German. She begins reading in secret, finding solace and intellectual awakening there that become a lifeline.

Billy Walton, in recovery from alcohol addiction and owner of a local tavern called Shaken, Not Stirred, provides the community’s perspective. He recalls learning that Rachel was pregnant and excommunicated from the local Amish community. She was taken in by the Widow Charlotte Chesterfield, an elderly atheist who lives across the river from Hannah’s home. When Charlotte dies, she wills her home and land to Rachel.

Hannah’s grief over Rachel’s banishment leads her to nightly vigils overlooking Charlotte’s house, where she watches for signs of Rachel and the baby Jasper. Over time, mother and daughter secretly reconnect on opposite banks of the river, with Josiah, Hannah’s husband, tacitly permitting these meetings. Years later, Rachel tells Hannah that she is pregnant again, and she dies giving birth to Gabriel.

After Rachel’s death, Jasper raises Gabriel. Thomas visits Jasper’s farm regularly to care for the infant. Gabriel displays a remarkable bond with animals from toddlerhood. Thomas begins taking five-year-old Gabriel on veterinary calls, and the two develop a deep bond. Gabriel also grows at an astonishing rate. By age five, he stands five feet six inches tall. Thomas brings him to T-ball tryouts, where Gabriel’s hitting power is so extreme that he breaks a first baseman’s arm with a line drive. At seven, he begins playing against 12-year-olds; Gabriel hits 50 home runs in a season.

When Gabriel is nine, Thomas takes him to Milwaukee to visit his mother, Dorothy Kennedy, who has dementia. That night, upon returning home, Gabriel discovers Jasper’s body hanging from a barn beam. Thomas brings the devastated boy to Josiah and Hannah, where Gabriel begins a new life with his Amish grandparents. He embraces their ways, attending Amish school and developing a beautiful singing voice. His growth continues: By 17, Gabriel stands over eight feet tall and weighs nearly 400 pounds.

Coach Trey Beathard, a Texan rebuilding his life after a catastrophic downfall due to addiction, arrives in town and is hired to coach the local high school football team. One summer evening, he spots Gabriel in a field, throwing 40-pound hay bales into the air with one arm. He recruits Gabriel, who joins the team during his Rumspringa, the Amish tradition allowing adolescents to experience the outside world before committing to the faith. The team goes undefeated and wins the state championship. Gabriel signs a deal to attend and play for the University of Wisconsin.

At Wisconsin, Gabriel finds love with Isabella Alvarez, an elementary education major from California’s Central Valley. He dominates as a starting offensive tackle, but in his sophomore year, during a game against Ohio State, three opposing linemen destroy Gabriel’s knee, causing irreversible damage. Gabriel’s right leg is amputated above the knee.

Gabriel returns to his grandparents but cannot readjust to Amish life without modern amenities. He moves into Thomas’s home, where he masters a prosthetic leg and returns to work as Thomas’s veterinary assistant. Restless and feeling that his gifts are wasted, Gabriel accepts a professional wrestling contract in London, performing as Anakim, the Amish Giant. He builds a massive international following.

Thomas, whose friendship with Hannah has deepened through monthly dinners with her family, invites her to Chicago to see Gabriel’s American wrestling debut. Their day together becomes a journey of revelation: They visit Dorothy’s nursing home, where she converses with Hannah in German; Hannah goes to a museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, for the first time; and Thomas holds her hand over deep-dish pizza.

At the wrestling match, Hannah is horrified when the spectacle turns violent, and Gabriel’s Amish identity is exploited as costume. She flees in tears. On the drive home, Thomas reveals that his wife Angela’s death was ruled a suicide, but he was publicly investigated and driven from Milwaukee. Hannah tells him he must forgive himself.

That night, Absalom Yoder’s house burns down with him inside. Hannah discovers a letter her father slid under her door before setting the fire, a confession that he sexually abused both Meg and Rachel, fathering both Jasper and Gabriel. Hannah is shattered. When she confronts Josiah about whether he knew of the abuse, his silence devastates her. She calls Thomas and asks him to take her in.

Hannah lives at Thomas’s home for months, reading his mother’s books, wearing English clothes for the first time, and slowly healing. Her husband Josiah calls this period her “senior Rumspringa.” Then Gabriel calls Thomas to tell him that Gabriel has awakened blind. Doctors have found a large, inoperable brain tumor. He flies home to die.

He returns to Thomas’s house, where Hannah, Thomas, Josiah, and rotating groups of Amish women provide round-the-clock care. Trey Beathard takes overnight shifts and, learning of Gabriel’s regret over losing Isabella, independently tracks her down. Isabella arrives at the door with a toddler: Raphael, Gabriel’s son.

On the morning of August 2, Gabriel begins singing wordlessly in his sleep. Thousands of birds arrive outside the windows, singing in a rolling symphony. Farm animals and wild mammals join in. Tens of thousands of fireflies descend onto Gabriel’s body, covering every surface in blindingly bright light. Then they ascend in unison, and Gabriel is dead. Thomas collects feathers from the yard and lays the most beautiful across Gabriel’s chest.

Gabriel is buried beside Rachel and Jasper at the Cemetery of Peace, his grave marked only by an unadorned limestone fossil. Hannah returns to Josiah, affirming her marriage and saying a tearful goodbye to Thomas. She catches fireflies in a mason jar with Raphael, echoing a story she once told Gabriel about his mother catching fireflies to light her childhood room. Isabella decides to settle nearby with Raphael.

Thomas, bereaved, sells his home to Isabella and buys a cabin on the Missouri River in Montana. On an October morning before first light, he drives away from Lakota. With him, he carries the book of Dickinson poems that Hannah left him. At 71, watching the sunrise in his rearview mirror, he feels his life is just about to begin.