Barracuda - Softcover

From the award-winning author of The Slap comes a powerfully moving story of forgiveness and a young man's struggle towards maturity.

His whole life, Danny Kelly has wanted just one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he's ever done-every thought, every dream, every action-has taken him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world would see him for what he is: the fastest, the strongest and the best. His life has been a preparation for that moment.

His parents struggle so that he can attend the most prestigious private school, with the finest swimming program. Danny loathes it there and is bullied and shunned as an outsider, but his coach is the best, and he knows Danny is too-better than all those rich boys, those pretenders. Danny's win-at-all-costs ferocity gradually wins favour with the coolest boys-he's Barracuda, he's the psycho, he's everything they want to be but don't have the guts to become. He's going to show them all.

Should we teach our children to win, or should we teach them to live? How do we make and remake our lives? Can we atone for the past? Can we overcome shame? And what does it mean to be a good person?

A searing and provocative novel by the acclaimed author of international bestseller The Slap, Barracuda is an unflinching look at modern society, at our hopes and dreams, our friendships and our families. It is about class and sport and politics and migration and education. It is about family and friendship and love and work, the identities we inhabit and discard, the means by which we fill the holes at our centre. Barracuda is brutal, tender and blazingly brilliant-everything we have come to expect from this fearless vivisector of our lives and our world.

TTsiolkas writes with compelling clarity about the primal stuff that drives us all: the love and hate and fear of failure... A brilliant, beautiful book. If it doesn't make you cry, you can't be fully alive. --Sunday Times
I finished Barracuda on a high: moved, elated, immersed... This is the work of a superb writer who has completely mastered his craft but lost nothing of his fiery spirit in so doing. It is a big achievement. --Guardian
Terrific --Kate Saunders, The Times
Masterful, addictive, clear-eyed storytelling about the real business of life: winning and losing --Viv Groskop, Red Online
This involving and substantial tale - surprisingly tender for all its sweary shock-value - is carried swiftly along by Tsiolkas's athletic, often lyrical prose. --Daily Mail
The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas's bestselling previous novel declared "Welcome to Australia in the early 21st century." The same semi-ironic sentiment echoes throughout Barracuda, which is, if anything, an even greater novel... It may tell an old, old story, but it has rarely been told in a better way --Sunday Telegraph
Christos Tsiolkas is in his natural element, with sentences gliding elegantly until the reader is utterly submerged in this absorbing story --Metro
This is a compelling, moving novel about identity, failure and the redemptive power of family --Mail on Sunday

See Christos talk about Barracuda --http://atlantic-books.co.uk/barracuda