The Thousands

Through a small slight of your eyesight you could have read this as Jack Bauer’s book launch. I bet he’d moonlight as a Mills and Boon style rom-trash novelist when not counter terrorising international crims. But no, this is Jon Bauer, Melbourne-based short fiction writer and civilian. This is his first novel, the exploration of the mind of a precocious child as he moves into volatile young adulthood. It’s funny and compelling and J.M. Coetzee thinks it’s great.– REJ