Broken Bones: A Novel

by Isaac James Baker

Broken Bones is the story of Michael Rinnovi, a distraught 25- 5’11, 95 pounds. He has barely eaten or slept in months. Michael wakes up nearly dead in an emergency room, and the doctors say he’s too far gone; he needs extensive rehabilitation. Michael signs himself into a psychiatric ward for people with eating disorders. Broken Bones is his journal. "With shades of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Baker brings the reader into the cold concrete of an eating disorder ward, ferrying him through a month of constant observation, brutal rigidity, and rationed showers, of drug-clouded nights and mornings of cold eggs and watered-down coffee. In such an oppressive environment, an institution where those tasked with making the inpatients whole don't even see them as people, small victories evolve into epic celebrations and minor setbacks can become soul-crushing defeats. Baker is adept at making the reader ride everyone one of those ups and downs, and with a few simple sentences can turn fifteen minutes of sunshine into the raucous, unburdened relief of the end of a bloody, years-long war." Based on the author’s own experience with mental distress and anorexia, "Broken Bones is a truly mesmerizing and engrossing novel, fraught with humor, anger, and pathos; a gripping and personal story of one man's struggle against himself and seemingly everything around him." - Eirik Gumeny, author of Exponential Apocalypse, former editor of Jersey Devil Press.

344 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2014

About the author

Isaac James Baker has worked as a freelance writer, editor, newspaper reporter and communications specialist. He is currently finishing up a master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. His fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in a bunch of random places, including BloodLotus Journal, BlazeVOX and The Battered Suitcase. Isaac blogs about “Reading, Writing and Wine” and writes for the daily wine blog Terroirist. When he’s not writing or tasting wine, Isaac can be found chasing cold surf around the east and west coasts. Isaac's first novel, Broken Bones, is out now. It's based on his month-long stay in a psychiatric ward for people with eating disorders. Born and raised in Belmar, New Jersey, Isaac lives in Washington, DC.