Two novels today that belong at the top of your TBR pile. One is a debut from a Minnesotan, the other from a Wisconsinite. Their characters live through dark times, but both end with hope.

“Life, & Death, & Giants”: by Ron Rindo (St. Martin’s Press, $26)

I took the envelope my father had left me upstairs to my bedroom. I drew back the curtains to allow the sun to shine in. I sat on the bed and tore open the envelope. Though I have read it over many times since, the letter seems to smolder in my hands each time, so close it is, so close it must be, to the perpetual flames of hell. — from “Life, & Death, & Giants”

This stunning novel by a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is about so many things — community, family, loss of faith, strained marriage and a famous giant named

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