WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE 2009
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2010

'A tremendously vital book in every sense.' - Sunday Times

At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly boy.

The boy is not his son.

It is a single act of violence, but the slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen.

Christos Tsiolkas presents the impact of this apparently minor domestic incident through the eyes of eight of those who witness it. The result is an unflinching interrogation of the life of the modern family, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits...

The must-read novel of the summer.' Guardian Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, THE SLAP is the most talked-about novel of 2010, and looks set to be the most read book of 2011. 'Honestly, one of the three or four truly great novels of the new millennium.' John Boyne

About the Author
Christos Tsiolkas is the author of four novels: Loaded (filmed as Head-On) The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, which won the 2006 Age Fiction Prize and the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing Award. The Slap won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize 2009 and was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and the ALS Gold Medal. He is also a playwright, essayist and screen writer. He lives in Melbourne.

Reviews
The must-read novel of the summer. * Guardian *
Honestly, one of the three or four truly great novels of the new millennium. * John Boyne *
Now and then a book comes along that defines a summer. This year that book is The Slap... The writing has shades of Martin Amis, Nick Hornby and Anne Tyler... The ideal summer read. * Daily Telegraph *
As addictive as the best soap opera. * Daily Mail *
A tremendously vital book in every sense. * Sunday Times *
Dazzling. * Independent *
Tsiolkas is a true storyteller and a hundred sentences could be plucked from the text to demonstrate his genius for establishing place, mood and character in a handful of words * Sydney Morning Herald *
Brilliantly compelling and utterly fresh... Fiercely fantastic, you won't be able to put this down. * Grazia *
Nothing short of a tour de force. Tsiolkas outs a microscope to family life and presents us with a vision both of unflinching honesty and great tenderness. Here is a novel of immense power and scope, reminiscent of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and Don De Lillo's Underworld. * Colm Toibin *
Brilliant, beautiful, shockingly lucid and real, this is a novel as big as life built from small, secret, closely observed beats of the human heart. A cool, calm, irresistible masterpiece. * Chris Cleave *


Awards
Winner of THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE 2009 (UK). Long-listed for The Man Booker Prize 2010 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781848873568
Author Christos Tsiolkas
Format Paperback
Page Count 496
Imprint Atlantic Books
Publisher Atlantic Books
Weight(grams) 351g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 30mm