$19.95 CAD

To Me You Seem Giant

Greg Rhyno 978-1-988732-00-8 | 264 Pages September, 2017 Accolades!, Ebook, Fiction, Nunatak First Fiction Series

Also available as an ebook from

About this book

  • Finalist in the Trade Fiction Award at the 2018 Alberta Book Publishing Awards!

It’s 1994 and Pete Curtis is pretty much done with Thunder Bay, Ontario. He’s graduating high school and playing drums in a band that’s ready to hit the road. Even though his parents, teachers, and new girlfriend seem a little underwhelmed, Pete knows he’s on the verge of indie rock greatness.

Fast-forward ten years, Pete finds himself stuck teaching high school in the hometown he longed to escape, while his best friend and former bandmate is a bona fide rock star.

Greg Rhyno's debut novel is full of catchy hooks, compelling voices, and duelling time signatures. Told in two alternating decades, To Me You Seem Giant is a raucous and evocative story about trying to live in the present when you can’t escape your past.

  • Check out Greg Rhyno's interview on rob mclennan's blog!

 

The To Me You Seem Giant YouTube playlist

Reviews

“An engrossing and masterful debut, To Me You Seem Giant reads like a love letter: to the Canadian music scene, to the 1990s, and to the city of Thunder Bay.”

~ Amy Jones, author of We’re All in This Together

“Rhyno knows of what he writes: the fervor of indie rock adolescence, the convolutions of adulthood, and the heartache in plumbing the past. A poignant and truthful novel, delivered with grace and panache.”

~ Rob Benvie, musician and author of Maintenance

"For a novel that's a lot of fun, Rhyno's book is ultimately kind of uncool. Uncool in a good way, though. In the end, it's a love song to adulthood, about the journey from disorder to order, an acknowledgement that you can leave behind a lot of the bad of your youth and still bring all the good music with you." full review

~ Andrew Hood, Bookshelf

"To Me You Seem Giant is a smartly observed journey about how to move forward."

~ Michael Sobota, The Chronicle-Journal

"A brooding tenor – combined with a lifelong love for music that manifests itself in new ways as he ages – lends Pete’s character a believable continuity." full review

~ Becky Robertson, Quill & Quire

“To Me You Seem Giant is ultimately a touching and hopeful reminder of the need to confront the demons of your past in order to move on.”

~ Alexander Kosoris, The Walleye

"Underneath the layers of rock and roll is a compelling tale of lost loves, backstabbing bandmates and wondering where it all went wrong."

~ Steven Sandor, Avenue Edmonton

"... a truly Canadian story that I think anyone who came of age in the 90s will really enjoy." full review

~ Worn Pages and Ink Blog

"Rhyno mixes in enough wit and self-deprecation with the troubles of youth and ennui of adulthood to make the story freshly entertaining, and the encyclopedic list of 1990s-era cultural artefacts provides a warm nostalgia for anyone who grew up in that unique historical moment." full review

~ William Best, Canadian Literature

"...each character was drawn so empathetically I felt like they were friends of mine by the end of the book; I was sad to close the last page on them." full review

~ Anne Logan, I've Read This