The Slap

Christos Tsiolkas

Nov 2009 · Bolinda · Narrated by Alex Dimitriades

About this audiobook

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own. In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The Slap is told from the points of view of eight people who were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires. What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex and marriage, parenting and children, and the fury and intensity - all the passions and conflicting beliefs - that family can arouse. In its clear-eyed and forensic dissection of the ever-growing middle class and its aspirations and fears, The Slap is also a poignant, provocative novel about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.

About the author

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of five novels: Loaded, which was made into the feature film Head-On, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, which won the 2006 Age Fiction Prize and the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing Award. He won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and won the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal for his novel, The Slap, which was also announced as the 2009 Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Book Industry Awards Books of the Year. He is also a playwright, essayist and screenwriter. Christos' latest novel is Barracuda, which was published here and in the UK to rave reviews in late 2013 and became an instant bestseller.

Alex Dimitriades made his film debut playing the title role in the Australian feature film The Heartbreak Kid, followed by a brilliant turn as the troubled Ari in Head On, a performance that earned Alex an AFI nomination in 1998 and a Film Critics’ Circle of Australia Award in 1999. He also received an AFI nomination in 2001 for his role in the film La Spagnola. Alex has starred in many of Australia’s best television dramas including the sensational hit series Underbelly, based on the Melbourne gangland murders. Alex’s most recent performance is in the Australian feature film Three Blind Mice.