The Giant — Frederick Manfred

As the third and most dramatic volume of Manfred's World's Wanderer trilogy, "The Giant" brings to a conclusion the story of outsized Thurs Wraldson and his passionate search for a meaning and purpose in life. This novel is set in the turbulent years immediately preceding and during World War II, when Thurs returns from an unsatisfying sojourn in New York to his Midwestern homeland. Here he forms a firm friendship with Bruce Farrewell, nuclear physicist and statistician, who is also destined to destroy him. He falls in love with Eva Nordling, university librarian, and they marry, despite the imminence of war. When war does come, he is rejected for service because of his excessive height.

By chance, Thurs happens upon a clue which leads him to his father, whose identity he had never known. Although the old man is dying, one precious meeting convinces Thurs that he must return to composing music, the occupation in which, at last, he finds spiritual fulfillment.

Moving from the high mark set by the two previous novels in this trilogy, "The Giant" brings a fitting climax to the brilliant chronicle of Thurs Wraldson, a vivid creation by a strong and original talent which rates a permanent niche in modern American literature.