50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

Don't Miss

  • Self Portraits: 20% Off Select Memoirs
  • Literary Friction: 20% Off Select Fiction Titles
  • Powell's Author Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books
  • Audio Books

Visit Our Stores


Renee Macalino Rutledge: Powell's Q&A: Renee Macalino Rutledge, author of 'One Hundred Percent Me' (0 comment)
Could you describe your latest book, One Hundred Percent Me?
A little girl is used to hearing questions about her looks all the time. "Where are you from?" "What are you?" These questions are a constant reminder from others that she is different. As she embraces her identity and culture, she teaches others that she belongs, that the differences they notice are part of what make her unique, special, and herself....
Read More»
  • Kelsey Ford: Celebrate Short Story Month: 7 Recommendations Based on 7 Collections We Love (0 comment)
  • Keith Mosman: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Jacqueline Woodson and Leo Espinosa's 'The World Belonged to Us' (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

by Tiffany Baker
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780446194228
ISBN10: 0446194220



All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$20.99
New Trade Paperback
Available at a Remote Warehouse. Ships separately from other items. Additional shipping charges may apply. Not available for In Store Pickup. More Info
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
20Remote Warehouse

Staff Pick

With an original story and wholly-realized characters, this novel shines. Truly Plaice (the giant of the title) is an unsettling mix of martyr, saint, and witch. She navigates life from her less-than-perfect body, using her ancestors' knowledge of magic as she sees fit. Truly is a one-of-a-kind heroine that will stay with you long after you close this astonishing novel. An amazing feat for a first time novelist. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.

When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

Review

Grabs you from its astonishing beginning to its riveting conclusion. Its charms are multitude-- a wholly unique love story, a devastating friendship, a bewitching multi-generational history... A must-read. --Sara Gruen, author of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

Review

"Mixes the exuberant eccentricities of John Irving, Anne Tyler's relationship savvy and Margaret Atwood." (PW, Starred Review)

Review

A beautiful, startling and wholly original novel, LGOAC is infused with magic, lush language, and surprises on every page. This book is a treasure. --Stephanie Kallos, author of BROKEN FOR YOU

Review

A bracing, bright, masterful debut, Tiffany Baker is a writer to watch. --Joshilyn Jackson, author of THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING

Review

"This fun, folkloric story is part Ugly Duckling, part Tim Burton's Big Fish.... For anyone looking to vanquish the cruelties of the real world, this one's for you." (Marie Claire)

Review

"A little pearl of a book... like buried treasure." (The Dallas Morning News)

Review

"Baker's writing is beautiful. Her descriptive style crafts Truly's emotions into sentences that are hidden treasures." (The Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Review

"An alluring plot... lush voice... Baker has a good sense of the dark comedy of melodrama." (Washington Post)

Review

"One splendid book... Pick of the week." (Boston Sunday Globe)

Review

"First-time novelist Tiffany Baker uses the omniscient first-person narrator with ease. Although written in the past tense, the straightforward timeline construction manages to deliver for its characters a fairy-tale quality of coming, going and being all at once. Truly's wisdom and self-possession are the charm." (The San Francisco Chronicle)

Review

"Tiffany Baker poured her whole heart into this weird and wonderful first novel-- and the result resembles its heroine: ungainly but magical; grotesque but true." (Chicago Sun-Times)

Review

"But the brilliant part of this book is the colorful world of Aberdeen that Baker constructs; she weaves together a multitude of little bits to fashion one genuinely entertaining story." (Wisconsin State Journal)

Review

"Truly Plaice is a heroine for our times. She is also a mercy killer, a healer, a loyal and loving friend, aunt and sister and the star of an enchanting first novel." (USA Today)

About the Author

Tiffany Baker is the author of The Gilly Salt Sisters and The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, which was a New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. She holds an MFA (creative writing) and a PhD (Victorian Literature) from UC Irvine, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children.

4.3 3

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 4.3 (3 comments)

`
Anna Paquette , January 01, 2011
It's rare that a book grabs ahold of me on the first page and won't let go until the end. (It's so rare in fact that I can't remember the last time it happened.) So, I was pleasantly surprised when, within the first few lines of this book, I was so fully immersed in the story that I could hardly stand to do anything other than read. Even now, months after reading it, I'm still in awe of how well the author combined elements of daily life that almost all of us can immediately identify with (work, family, etc.), with the fantastic/magical to create a story that's totally believable but just slightly unreal enough that it feels like a fairy tale. And, for me, that's a sign of an excellent book. I'm not usually one to reread, but this book has a permanent place on the shelf in my home and I look forward to enjoying it over and over again.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
Jennmarie68 , May 26, 2010 (view all comments by Jennmarie68)
There was so much about this one that I loved. The writing was beautiful, the characters were very well developed, and the story was captivating. I had actually been eying this one for a while and never got around to it. But I'm glad that I was finally given the chance to read it. There's so many great things about this book that in trying to write this review I don't really know where to start. The main character is so great. Truly's life is so extraordinary, and yet so simple. The events that occur in her everyday life are really so normal. There are just a few events that cause her life to be so different. The main characters were so well written that I was able to connect with them all. I could understand what they were all going through and why they choose the paths that they took. While my emotional attachment in this one was with Truly, I had a great understand of what they were all feeling. In addition to the great characters the story was very well written also. While it was definitely larger than life none of it was unbelievable. This story is really something that I could see happening in any town in America. With this one I could go on and on forever, as it was just a great book. I guess that's the best way to sum it up: Truly a great book!

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
gaby317 , January 27, 2010 (view all comments by gaby317)
If you enjoy John Irving's tales set in New England towns, especially A Prayer for Owen Meany, then Tiffany Baker's The Little Giant of Aberdeen County will likely appeal to you. Tiffany Baker gives us the same sense of fantastic when she recounts the town's history, events in Truly's life, and those of her closest friends. This sense of fantastic is complemented by the close look into small town life. The most powerful and haunting parts of the book come from the insults, and unkindness that Truly and other "misfits" undergo and the quiet conversations between Truly and her friends as she makes sense of her world. SPOILER ALERT! The Little Giant of Aberdeen County is carefully crafted, funny, and haunting. As I read the book, I kept wishing that Truly would push back and teach the bullies a lesson. I am likely more bloodthirsty than your usual reader, and though I enjoyed The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, I would have loved scenes of revenge! ISBN-10: 0446194220 - Paperback $13.99 Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (January 25, 2010), 368 pages. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment




Product Details

ISBN:
9780446194228
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
01/01/2010
Publisher:
Grand Central Publishing
Language:
English
Pages:
368
Height:
1.00IN
Width:
5.25IN
Thickness:
1.00
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
2010
UPC Code:
2800446194220
Author:
Tiffany Baker
Author:
Tiffany Baker
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$20.99
New Trade Paperback
Available at a Remote Warehouse. Ships separately from other items. Additional shipping charges may apply. Not available for In Store Pickup. More Info
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
20Remote Warehouse
Used Book Alert for book Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2022 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##