The sensational international bestseller by Australia's "preeminent contemporary novelist" (The Age), in his United States debut Winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Christos Tsiolkas's The Slapis a riveting page-turner and a powerful, haunting rumination on contemporary middle-class family life. When a man slaps a child who is not his own at a neighborhood barbecue, the act triggers a series of repercussions in the lives of the people who witness the event-causing them to reassess their values, expectations, and desires. For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Tom Perrotta, this is a compelling account of modern society and the way we live today.