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The blurb:
Introducing Truly Plaice, a woman of indomitable spirit whose heart is far larger than her giant exterior...

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the whole town of Aberdeen lined to bet on the weight of the baby who could stretch a woman to such epic proportions. Young Truly would pay 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 older sister and polar opposite, Serena Jane, the epitome of feminine perfection. His early death would leave Serena Jane to a life of privilege as the town's May Queen and Truly to an existence with an outcast family on a rattletrap, rundown farm.

While Truly's remarkable size makes her the subject of constant curiosity and humiliation, Serena Jane's beauty proves to be both a blessing and a curse. Being the prettiest girl in town will make her the obsession of Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans, Aberdeen's family doctors for generations. And Bob Bob will set off a chain of events that change the destiny of all Aberdeen County.

As Truly grows older - and ever larger - she will become linked to Sarah Jane's fate. . .and in a different way from her sister's become a target of Bob Bob's intense interest. But when she uncovers the Morgan family secret, a centuries-old shadow book penned by the first doctor's witch-wife. Tabitha, she may have found the key to her own unique future

Armed with dangerous secrets from Aberdeen's past, Truly soon confronts life altering moral decisions about whether or how she should use her newfound knowledge. As she practices her herbal healing, she is drawn ever more tightly into the circle of the town until she learns of a betrayal so huge, even she is dwarfed by it. In the end, Truly will be forced to face her own larger-than-life demons, redefine mercy, and consider the possibility that love cannot be ordered to size.

A poignant story of friendship, love, and identity that is laced with magic and humor, The Little Giant of Aberdeen County breaks new ground with its larger-than-life heroine and her entrance into the ranks of modern literature.

Review:
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.

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Valerie and Hatchette Book Group are generously giving away one copy of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by debut author Tiffany Baker.

The blurb:

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.


About the Author, courtesy of the publisher:
Tiffany Baker lives in Tiburon, California with her husband and three children. This is her first novel. Learn more about on her website at ht

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