Christos Tsiolkas on class, shame, and how to recover from failure
Acclaimed author of The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas, has a new book out which once again takes on the social issues we all find difficult to face up to. Barracuda is the story of Danny Kelly, a talented young swimmer of Greek and Scottish heritage who is driven by a desire to win gold. His journey takes him away from his social class and his family and into a world where winning is everything and losing is not an option. But what happens when we don’t live up to our own, and society’s, expectations?
In this book Tsiolkas explores notions of class, shame, belonging and atonement in a post-Howard “aspirational Australia”. He asks the hard questions about how failure impacts on our young people and whether we should be teaching our kids to win or just to live.