The Slap

Book excerpt: The reverberations from the slap are far-reaching, affecting the marriages and friendships of all those who witness it. What unfolds is a powerful, haunting novel about love, sex, marriage, and the fury and intensity that family can arouse. In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas brilliantly weaves together a maze of complex relationships. Told through the eyes of eight different characters, the slap and the ensuing emotional maelstrom become catalysts for an unflinching and all-seeing journey into the modern family and domestic life. Children come of age, marriages teeter on the brink and midlife crises erupt against a backdrop of lust, jealousy, deception and inadequacy. In its penetrating and incisive examination of the evergrowing middle class and its fears and aspirations, The Slap is a fiercely intelligent and provocative story about the nature of loyalty and happiness, compromise and truth.