Plenty of novels entertain and move us, but only a few become cultural landmarks in their own right: capturing the state of a nation at a particular moment in time, and sparking conversations and arguments that continue long after their publication.
Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap is one of them. When it was published in 2008 it scandalized, delighted, outraged and sent shock reverberations literally across the world. The Slap upturned lazy stereotypes about who and what Australia is as a nation. At the Sydney Writers’ Festival Homegrown program in August 2026, Sophie and Jonty interviewed Christos about writing a novel that was destined to become a touchstone for Australian identity, worldwide.
The inciting incident of the book is, of course, the slap itself. It’s delivered by Harry, a self-made businessman of Greek heritage, against a four-year-old boy, at a barbeque in suburban Melbourne. Harry’s split-second transgression changes the lives of everyone present, and exposes faultlines that divide generations, race and gender, and reveal the lie of Australian egalitarianism.
The Slap was Christos’ fourth novel. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and has been adapted for the screen twice - once by the ABC, and then by NBC in the USA. What made The Slap both iconically Australian, and a daring – erm - slap in the face to prevailing Aussie stereotypes.
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