Learning to swim against the tide

Barracuda

CHRISTOS TSIOLKAS was happy with his status as a moderately successful writer, but then his fourth novel, The Slap, catapulted him into fame. Longlisted for the Man Booker, The Slap won the Commonwealth Prize in 2009, and was shortlisted for two other awards. Starting with a man hitting someone else’s unruly child, it became a must-read book, beloved by reading groups. But not everyone liked it.

It left the second-generation Australian reflecting on the meaning of success.