Inside the Giant

Abandoned as a newborn on the steps of a Georgia orphanage, Phil grows into a boy too large for any room he enters — and too watchful for anyone to ever truly know. Raised by the sharp love of Sister Agnes and marked early by a body that outgrows his childhood before his mind can catch up, Phil is shaped first by rejection, then by the brutal grace of the football field, and finally by war. From the orphanage laundry room to the roar of Friday night lights, from a jungle in Vietnam to the blinding glare of national fame, Inside the Giant follows one man's lifelong struggle to be seen as more than his size, his silence, or his myth. Ben Solomon's fully expanded edition deepens the original thirty-chapter saga with nine new chapters, drawing readers even further into the interior world of a boy who became a legend — and the man who spent a lifetime trying to stay human inside him. What readers will find inside: A sweeping origin story that begins with abandonment and ends in reckoning with fame, fatherhood, and identity An unforgettable protagonist — gentle-hearted, physically towering, and haunted by a past no one else can see Raw, atmospheric Southern setting that captures both the tenderness and cruelty of small-town life A gripping wartime arc that tests loyalty, courage, and the cost of silence Richly drawn secondary characters — Sister Agnes, Phil the Grill, and a family built from found love rather than blood Lyrical, emotionally layered prose newly expanded with additional interiority, sensory depth, and moral complexity Part coming-of-age story, part war narrative, part meditation on fame and identity — Inside the Giant is a novel about the gap between how the world sees a man and who he actually is inside. Get your copy today.