Back in 2008, when Christos Tsiolkas published his
fourth novel The Slap, he achieved a
result that every novelist hopes for. He tapped into something universal. For a
while there, everybody seemed to be talking about the same book. You felt left
out if you hadn’t read it. It was like Fifty
Shades of Grey, except it was good.
Mind you, the book had a few rough edges
stylistically. But at the structural level it had a tact that Australian novels
don’t always possess. Tsiolkas didn’t cudgel you with his moral views. He withheld
his judgment, thus encouraging you to exercise yours. To discuss the book was
therefore to argue about it, sometimes ferociously. How annoying was little
Hugo? How much of a pig was Harry? In 2011, when the ABC aired its excellent TV
adaptation, the arguments started all over again.
When Tsiolkas’s fifth novel, Barracuda, comes out this November, curiosity about its author is bound to intensify ... [read more]
When Tsiolkas’s fifth novel, Barracuda, comes out this November, curiosity about its author is bound to intensify ... [read more]
