The Slap
by Christos Tsiolkas
A man slaps a child at a barbecue. Australia's fault lines open up.
For you if
you want to understand contemporary Australia through a single incident that reveals every tension the country prefers not to name
⚡ Choose Your Route ⚡
Not sold directly on this site. Support indie bookstores with a new copy, or go sustainable with a used one.
Buy New on Bookshop.orgSupports independent bookstores
— OR —
Find Used on Better World BooksSecondhand & sustainable
$22 MSRP
Reference price shown. Other editions may be available.
At a suburban Melbourne barbecue, a man slaps someone else's child who isn't his. The novel follows eight characters — each one a different face of contemporary Australian society — as they navigate the fallout. Tsiolkas uses this single incident to dispatch from inside every fault line of modern Australia: class, race, immigration, parenting, sexuality, violence. The most uncomfortable Australian novel on this shelf and the most honest about what contemporary Australian society actually looks like when you remove the self-congratulatory multiculturalism from the surface.
Where This Book Lives
- Setting
- Australia
- Voice
- Written by a Australia author