Synopses & Reviews
The year is 1937 and Andorra Kelsey - 711 and just under 320 pounds - is on her way to Hollywood to become a star. Hoping to escape both poverty and the ghost of her dead husband, she accepts an offer from the wily Rutherford Simone to star in a movie about the life of Anna Swan, the Nova Scotia giantess who toured the world in the 19th century.In parallel narrative, Anna Swan's story unfurls. Where Andorra is seen as a disgrace by an embarrassed family, Anna Swan is quickly celebrated for her unique size. Drawn to New York, Anna becomes a famed attraction at P.T. Barnums American Museum even as she falls in love with Gavin Clarke, a veteran of the Civil War. Quickly disenchanted with a life of fame, Anna struggles to prove to Gavin - and the world - that she is more than the sum of her measurements.Both meticulously researched and resounding with the force of myth, The Thunder of Giants blends fact and fiction in a sweeping narrative that spans nearly a hundred years. Against the backdrop of epic events, two extraordinary women become reluctant celebrities in the hopes of surviving a world too small to contain them.
Review
"Take equal parts Peter Carey, Michael Chabon and Erin Morgenstern, throw them in a blender, and serve in a glass with a seven-foot, five-and-a-half-inch Krazy Straw. The colossally entertaining result is Joel Fishbane's the thunder of giants."
-Myla Goldberg, New York Times bestselling author of Bee Season and The False Friend"What an exuberant, double-stranded celebration of the extraordinary. In Anna and Andorra, Fishbane has conjured wonders indeed."--Stacy Carlson, author of Among the Wonderful
About the Author
JOEL FISHBANE, author of The Thunder of Giants, is a novelist, playwright, sous-chef, actor, former producer, amateur boxer, occasional clarinet player and general man about town. His various plays, short stories, articles, critiques and literary musings have been published, performed, honored, and otherwise applauded in Canada, the United States and Europe. He lives in Toronto and almost always wears a hat.