For countless centuries, humanity’s prejudiced vision has brutally murdered the chance for people deemed different. But what exactly makes a person normal? Ursula Hegi’s Stones from the River answers the aforementioned question and details how perceived disabilities and obscurities do not formally determine the extent of being normal. The novel revolves around the life of protagonist Trudi Montag, who was conceived and delivered by a mentally derranged woman causing her to suffer from a case of dwarfism.

As Trudi grew up, the vestiges of Trudi’s unique condition caused her to be ridiculed, humiliated, and disowned by almost every person she comes across with, including her own mother. Apart from the prejudice she encounters on a daily basis, Trudi was also sexually abused by four young males during her adolescence. Suffering from the prying prejudiced eyes of society, the only equalizing element that Trudi had was the unconditional love that she found from her father, Leo Mantag.

But despite the unconditional love that Trudi found from her father, the torments, the prejudice, and the abuse that she experienced since her youth fed her anger and distaste for her peculiarity. She went on with life going to different places and meeting different people. During her discourse, she utilizes her unique size in various ways, but most of the time, it manifests her resentment and aggravation towards her condition.

Trudi, however, undergoes a transcendence in her life through a baby girl who goes by the name Hanna. Despite the considerable gap between their ages, Hanna served as a reminder for Trudi that life has its share good and bad experiences; in Trudi’s eyes, Hanna was the portrait of human goodness and compassion that she never found from other people.