The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas



I have managed to tear myself away from my fanfiction addiction for a while to read The Slap. It won several awards when it was released in 2009 including the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2009 for best novel in the South-East Asia and South Pacific area. It was made into a mini series that was shown on Australian tv last year.

The story is divided in eight parts, each concerning a specific character It starts at a barbecue, a quintessentially Aussie event. There is a game of backyard cricket, a four year old child behaves like a brat, and an adult, not his parent, slaps him. Chaos ensues. The repercussions of this event effect the lives of all the characters involved.

Don't be put off by the storyline. The book is superbly written. It does contain some graphic sexual descriptions, but if you read fanfic you won't be shocked. There is also a lot of swearing.

Each character is convincing, even if they frustrate and annoy you. The people you think are obvious villains have back stories that help explain their actions without excusing them. The people you like do stupid, self-destructive things, just like in real life. It gives a great view of multi-cultural Australia, the characters are of different backgrounds, Indian, Greek, Serbian, English and Aussie. Some blend in, some identify strongly with their ethnic background.

The book is available through Amazon to download to your Kindle. Highly recommended.

Last edited by hepzibah (August 26, 2012 3:12 pm)

Free Kindle books are available through eReaderIQ.com. You log in, make your category selections, then get a daily email with free Kindle books. Some days there is nothing I want, other days I download 2 or 3 or 10. I put them in a special Free Amazon Books folder so I can remember why I downloaded them! Who knows, we may actually find some good writers this way.