The Slap (2008) was a hugely successful novel, winning numerous literary awards, and selling well over a million copies worldwide. What would he write next? Could he do it again? I must admit to being a little nervous about this - I thought The Slap was a work of genius, highly compelling, exciting, profound, and with a brilliantly pulled-off, highly technical structure. Well, Barracuda is as brilliant, as compelling, more moving, more exciting; another work of genius. He's done it again.
Danny is a young swimming sensation, with a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics firmly in his sights. He is a brilliantly drawn character - short-tempered, contrary, frustrating, moody, absolutely driven. The novel is about his ambition, and the death of his dream, and ultimately, what it takes to become a good person. The structure is again clever, this time telling the story in two time strands, one going forward, the other back, building a picture of his life before and after the moment that changes his story, and also building such unbearable tension that the reader is driven to the end of the novel at great speed. It's along book, over 500 pages, but it races past, and Tsiolkas's description of competitive swimming are astounding, so beautifully evoked that water becomes a key character in the novel. Don't miss this one!