After the huge success of his novel The Slap it is often difficult for an author to follow with another as good. Tsiolkas has succeeded in doing just that. Set in Australia and Scotland, the novel explores the problems that arise when an impressionable, working class teenager, Danny, wins a swimming scholarship to a prestigious private school and then doesn’t live up to his expectations. The way the author sets out the chapters in different contexts and times, sometimes using Danny (later Dan) as narrator, is admirable as he tries to make sense of his behaviour and manage his anger. It is a very fine work indeed. Highly recommended.
In addition to our Lovereading expert opinion for Barracuda a small number of Lovereading members were lucky enough to be invited to review this title - ''I was gripped by this novel, moved to tears by the end and haunted by the story of Danny Kelly who dared to dream.' Francesca Ashurst.
Daniel Kelly, a talented young swimmer, has one chance to escape his working-class upbringing.
His astonishing ability in the pool should drive him to fame and fortune, as well as his revenge on the rich boys at the private school to which he has won a sports scholarship. But when he melts down at his first big international championship and comes only fifth, he begins to destroy everything he has fought for and turn on everyone around him. Barracuda is a powerful and moving novel of sport and violence, class and education, dreams and disillusionment; it is the story of a young man who eventually comes to realise that it is in family and friendship that his strongest identity lies.
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.
