“Brilliant from the rural inland … Three well-crafted characters who all explore life in a larger context. Bakke provides them with subtle thoughts that resonate far beyond the local and everyday … The book is also excellently written; Bakke’s prose is so precise, sharp and rich with imagery that you jump with joy while reading”
Inger Bentzrud, Dagbladet, 5/6 stars

“Without sentimentality, but with solid doses black humour [Bakke] portrays growing up in the rural inland in Agder through several generations … Gunstein Bakke offers a sort of declaration of love to the old Aust-Agder, but there’s nothing idyllic about it”
Ole Jacob Hoel, Adresseavisen, 5/6 stars

“… the text is full of intense impressions, lively imagery, scenes that the stick in the readers’ mind. Whether it’s about beekeeping, a heron in the river, a limping fox, a horse dying in dramatic circumstances, frogs in the road on a dark evening, something called ‘spruce fall’, the use of hijab and the practice of eating fish au gratin, feeling most at home on the toilet, or acquiring violent-induced traumas that seem to last for the rest of your life”
Steinar Sivertsen, Stavanger Aftenblad, 5/6 stars

“Reflections and memories are put into words in a half-poetic, sensuous stream of prose, filled with sudden end rhymes, alliteration, peculiar phrases and references to sayings as well as other literary works. And this is where the weight and quality of the book is to be found, in a prose that strive to elucidate the deeply strange, foreign character of time and memory … That everything will perish doesn’t stop is from laughing. In spite of its deep abysses, Austalgia gives us a mildly comical look at the great churn of life”
Even Teistung, Klassekampen

“Cunning about decay and devilry … The shameless self-righteousness makes the novel uncomfortable, but no less exciting to read … When the thought of Ali Smith first pops up in my mind, it’s easy to see other things the two have in common: Gunstein Bakke’s subtle grasp of language reminds one of the energetic creativity of his Scottish colleague … [I could have] quoted articulate observations from almost every page … Bakke puts distance between himself and the current Norwegian trend, which has long been dominated by married life or young writers’ autobiographical coming-of-age stories. His precise prose lifts the novel”
Anne Cathrine Straume, NRK Bok