The SLAP Heard Round Europe
The Slap has “has sparked heated discussions across the world” according to The Telegraph. Now the author of “the most divisive book” on the long list for the Booker Prize, Christos Tsiolkas is making enemies by calling European writers dry and academic, preferring John Updike’s Couples because it has “a fearlessness that I am hungry for.”
About the aftermath of a guest slapping an obnoxious child, not his own, at a barbecue The Slap is currently the most popular Booker nominee in the UK, selling 3.5 times more copies than the second most popular title, The Room by Emma Donoghue.
It is not nearly as popular here, where it’s at #4,352 on Amazon’s list, as opposed to #16 in the UK. In libraries, holds are light.
So, here’s a thought; it may be an ideal choice for book clubs. It’s available here in paperback, people love it or hate it, making for heated discussions, and there’s the added interest of seeing whether it continues on the Booker short list (to be announced 9/7) and whether it wins the Booker in October (10/12).
It’s received strong reviews in both the UK and the US:
Jane Smiley reviewed it in The Guardian in May
Tsiolkas, who lives in Australia, has been interviewed here by WAMU’s Diane Rehm and The Bookslut.
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