‘The power of this book is its ability to stride steadily towards its own dark heart, never missing a beat along the way. This is a difficult protagonist to like but our insights into his childhood make his adult self utterly compelling. Not a light holiday read, but a clear strong voice from a new prodigious talent in Australian literature. Look out for this one when they are doling out the awards in 2011. Jon Bauer is the real deal.’
Krissy Kneen, Avid Reader Newsletter
‘[A] disturbing yet deeply moving debut novel ... Brilliantly inhabited and told.’
Big Issue
‘Anybody who reads this book and isn’t instantly a fan probably wasn’t paying close enough attention. Rocks in the Belly is both a masterpiece and a very challenging piece of writing ... With this beautiful novel, Bauer teaches us the meaning of ‘too little too late’, with an ending that is sure to bring a tear to even the most stoic reader’s eye. FIVE STARS’
Bookseller & Publisher
‘A rare and unique insight into the mind of an eight-year-old boy ... I look forward to following Jon Bauer's career as a novelist.’
Byron Shire Echo
‘This is either going to be one of those amazing breakthrough novels or it's going to be something that gets handed around at bookclubs for a long time and becomes a quiet cult ... This is a remarkable coming-of-age story.’
Courier Mail
‘[A] deeply considered, emotionally testing and truly original novel ... Bauer presents us with striking, convincing voices, not without humour, to temper such subject matter. It's very affecting, and stays with you.’
David Gaunt, Gleebooks Gleaner
‘This is compelling reading, and provides great scope for discussions about the nature of good, evil and love. The narrative voices are superb, as is the characterisation; 'damaged Robert', in particular, and the loving, disintegrating father, are sometimes so realistic as to be almost painful...Rocks in the Belly is a beautiful and profoundly disturbing novel. It presents a dark world filled with toxic emotions that many of us choose to ignore. But it's a world well worth entering.’
Good Reading
‘In his arresting first novel, Jon Bauer tells the story of an 8-year-old boy struggling to cope with jealousy as his family fosters troubled youngsters. Still haunted by his childhood, he returns as a 28-year-old to care for his dying mother. It’s a dramatic shift of power.’
Grazia
‘An ambitious, darkly disturbing, challenging and well-written debut novel.’
Marie Claire
‘An explosive visit to the depths of the human psyche, unveiling the masks we use to protect ourselves from the threatening absence of love ... Having your expectations met in fiction is a giddy feeling, and readers will revel in being able to make the connections between the selfish child and lonely, sad man. It’s a psychologist’s field day. While concentrated and tight in scope, it is far from predictable. If anything it will crush your assumptions about love and tenderness to smithereens, leaving a sky rife with clouds of forgiveness and regret. No-one can accuse Jon Bauer of leaving the bare bones of humanity dressed in disguise.’
Readings
‘This is a remarkable work in some respects. It balances a gut-wrenching sadness with a terrifying brutality; the adult Jim is a monster, but in laying bare the origins of his future self, Bauer develops for this anti-hero a complexity that keeps the reader in a state of ambivalence. Further, he doesn't simply reduce matters to childhood neglect resulting in a damaged grown-up. His eight-year-old is no angel by any standards ... From hiding beetroot in his underpants to back-talking the surprised policeman who catches the eight-year-old driving a stolen car, young 'Jim's' voice is one of the strongest in recent Australian writing, and Jon Bauer quite possibly one of its most intriguing new talents.’
The Sunday Age
‘A compelling look at how childhood egos stay with us long after we've grown up.’
Sunday Herald Sun
‘[A] stunning debut novel.’
Carlene Ellwood, Sunday Tasmanian
‘Bauer ruthlessly pokes dark and unpleasant psychological recesses and does not shy away from discomfort. Guilt, shame, malice, anger and neglect are the pressure points here. This makes for gripping reading. Each voice — the child and the man — is compelling and complex. Bauer perfectly catches the uncertainty of a deeply insecure child who does not want to share his mother's love, and neatly displays the ambiguity of the situation ... This is a largely tragic book, but it speaks in a mesmerising voice a brutal truth about the intensity of family relationships.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Bauer tells his dark, psychological story obliquely and with dramatic precision ... what dazzles most is Bauer's eye for physical and emotional detail ... Welcome to your new homeland. Mr Bauer. Now get back to work on your next book. Please.’
Conrad Walters, Sydney Morning Herald
‘Kept me pinned to the page.’
Brenda Walker, The Age
‘One of the most unsettling novels I have read in a while, with an emotional sharpness that hurts. Oh, and it's quite funny too.’
Stephen Romei, The Australian
‘British–Australian writer Jon Bauer’s superb first novel Rocks in the Belly is a finely drawn vision of jealousy, resentment and self- vindication, revealing how this toxicity can flourish in childhood and develop in adult life. As a novel of childhood, it’s as good as MJ Hyland’s Carry Me Down, with a similar spare, clean style and an understanding of the way a child’s mind can move, continuously weighing his own place in a family situation. Rocks in the Belly takes us into the adult aftermath of a childhood marked by angry anxieties, but it gives us the convincing voice of the child as well.’
Brenda Walker, The Monthly
‘Rocks in the Belly is a powerful book ... It is marked by candour, humour and sadness and seethes with so much frustration that in parts it becomes difficult to read. However, its ultimate sentiment moves towards compassion ...’
Weekend Australian
‘Jon Bauer excels in this exploration of the mind of a child who, however intelligent and funny he may be, is nonetheless deeply unsure of himself. A notable first novel.’
J.M. Coetzee
‘You are a very talented writer and you have a wonderful ear. Your prose is often stunningly good and there's so much about this book that's impressive. I'm sure this, your first novel, will do very well and it deserves to do well.’
M.J. Hyland
‘Blown away. Disturbing, intense, great psychological insight, brilliant inhabiting of the characters, both then and now. Moving but not sentimental. Dark and affecting. Great sense of foreboding throughout. Also loved the unreliable narrator — the constant uncertainty, having to read between ...the lines to judge the gap between perception and reality, which is never entirely resolved for you. Impressive that I empathised so strongly with and felt connected to a character who was so often deeply unlikeable.’
Jo Case, Editor of Readings Monthly and Books Editor of The Big Issue
‘Rocks in the Belly is indeed a really notable and distinguished debut — in many places most affecting, extraordinarily well thought-out and structured, dark and at times disturbing — I read this book with complete fascination.’
Martin Shaw, Books Division Manager, Readings Books & Music
‘This is a powerful and unforgettable debut novel that is simply impossible to put down. The subject matter will stay with you forever; it really packs a wallop! ... Read it; it’s riveting!’
Annette Gilbert, Timeless Books
