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'He asked the water to lift him, to carry him, to avenge him. He made his muscles shape his fury, made every stroke declare his hate. And the water obeyed; the water would give him his revenge. No one could beat him, no one came close.
'His whole life Danny Kelly's only wanted one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he's ever done - every thought, every dream, every action - takes him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world will 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 to send him to 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 knows Danny is, too, better than all those rich boys, those pretenders. Danny's win-at-all-cost 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 get there. He's going to show them all.
'He would be first, everything would be alright when he came first, all would be put back in place. When he thought of being the best, only then did he feel calm.
'A searing and provocative novel by the acclaimed author of the international bestseller The Slap, Barracuda is an unflinching look at modern Australia, at our hopes and dreams, our friendships, and our families.
'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 our past? Can we overcome shame? And what does it mean to be a good person?
'Barracuda is about living in Australia right now, about class and sport and politics and migration and education. It contains everything a person is: family and friendship and love and work, the identities we inhabit and discard, the means by which we fill the holes at our centre. It's brutal and tender and blazingly brilliant; everything we have come to expect from this fearless vivisector of our lives and world. ' (Publisher's blurb)
Adaptations
-
form
y
Barracuda
( dir. Robert Connolly
)
Australia
:
Matchbox Productions Pty Ltd
,
2016
8569798
2016
series - publisher
film/TV
'Based on the book of the same name by Christos Tsiolkas, Barracuda follows young Olympic hopeful, Danny Kelly, as he deals with the pressure of obsession.'
Source: Screen Australia.
Notes
-
Epigraph:
And now tell it to me
in other words,
says the stuffed owl
to the fly
which, with a buzz,
is trying with its head
to break through the window-pane.
-The Best Room, or Interpretation of a Poem,
Miroslav Holub
-
Dedication:
For Angela Savage
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Sound recording.
- Dyslexic edition.
Works about this Work
-
Listening to the Imagined Sound of Contemporary Australian Literature
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , December vol. 22 no. 2 2022; 'Listening and reading literature. These two activities are maybe counter-intuitive partners. In sensual terms, one mostly concerns the ear, the other the eye. When we listen, it is, usually, mostly to sound, to resonance, physical vibration—although composer and sound theorist John Cage tells us we can also listen to silence. When we read, it is a silent activity. Of course, we can listen to words, to a reading or an audiobook, and we can listen to poetry. But often, perhaps mostly, we read in silence.' (Introduction) -
Czech Translations and Receptions of Contemporary Australian Fiction
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Postcolonial Writing , vol. 58 no. 1 2022; (p. 51-64)'I was offered the opportunity to translate The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas into Czech in November 2010, two years after its original publication in Australia. The offer came from the publishing house Host, a growing and quite prestigious publisher focusing on original Czech poetry and fiction and quality literary translations of various genres. I was considered suitable because I had at the time five translations of full-length novels under my belt. The publishing house also relied upon my knowledge of the Australian context and my ability to conduct research in areas unfamiliar to me as I was a student of comparative literature in a post-graduate programme. Therefore, it entrusted me with a novel as complex and extensive as The Slap. There was also a very personal reason why the publisher picked me: like Tsiolkas, I have Greek ancestry, and the publisher thought that this, in particular, would help me understand the Greek dimension of Tsiolkas’s novel. After The Slap, I also translated Barracuda into Czech in 2014 – the last book by Tsiolkas published in Czech to date.' (Publication abstract)
-
Barracuda’s Freak Bodies and Elite Swimming in Australia
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , vol. 46 no. 1 2022; (p. 98-11)'This article considers the way in which elite swimming in Australia constitutes a system of identity to frame the privileging of heterosexuality, able-bodiedness and hypermasculinity in Christos Tsiolkas’s novel Barracuda (2013) and its television adaptation (2016). It argues that the two versions of the story offer very different sporting narratives: a migrant, working-class, gay body in the novel, the complexity of which is never fully realised on screen. The article shows how the television adaptation of Barracuda reshapes the novel’s atemporal structure into a linear progression of rise, fall and redemption, and that under these narrative conditions Daniel Kelly’s body becomes simply object, rather than embracing the subjecthood he is permitted in the novel. The effect is one of compulsory normalisation and erasure: of Danny’s queer body, of Dennis’s and Martin’s damaged bodies, and of the consequences of Danny’s criminal act. This process parallels similar attitudes towards Australia’s most elite athletes and the public ownership of their body narratives.' (Publication abstract)
-
Christos Tsiolkas's Style
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 21 no. 1 2021;'This article takes up a specific feature of Christos Tsiolkas's writing, his style. Focusing on Tsiolkas's fourth novel, The Slap, this article argues that Tsiolkas’s style is an inarticulate style: a style that does not always use the right word at the right moment, that employs language for narrative utility rather than its own sake, and that sporadically departs from standard usage and correctness in ways that do not appear artistically motivated. My argument is that The Slap is notable among contemporary fiction in that what I consider to be Tsiolkas’s worst sentences are the most revealing of his inclinations as a novelist. Consequently, I depart from what has become a standard formula in Tsiolkas's reception, that where Tsiolkas succeeds as a writer he succeeds in spite of his style. Finally, this article also contributes to recent debates about the purpose and vocabulary of Australian literary discussion: how critics debate the work of a prize-winning author, how criticism and praise operate in critical judgements, and the significance of style in evaluations of literature.' (Publication abstract)
-
Modern Times : The Great Australian Novel
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , November no. 477 2019; (p. 14)
-
Success Can Be a Burden
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 19 October 2013; (p. 19)
— Review of Barracuda 2013 single work novel -
Trouble at the Deep End of the Pool
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 October 2013; (p. 20-21)
— Review of Barracuda 2013 single work novel -
Christos Tsiolkas : Barracuda
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2013;
— Review of Barracuda 2013 single work novel -
Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 October 2013;
— Review of Barracuda 2013 single work novel -
Winning At Any Cost
A Gentler Splash
2013
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9 November 2013; (p. 33) The Age , 9 November 2013; (p. 25) The Canberra Times , 9 November 2013; (p. 22)
— Review of Barracuda 2013 single work novel -
Tsiolkas No Stranger to Controversy
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 12 February 2013; (p. 5) -
Ponting Returns for Huge Innings
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28-29 September 2013; (p. 14) The Canberra Times , 28 September 2013; The Age , 28 September 2013 2013; -
Slap Author Packing New Punch
2013
single work
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 19 October 2013; (p. 41) -
Interview : Christos Tsiolkas
2013
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 26-27 October 2013; (p. 4-5) The Age , 26 October 2013; (p. 12) The Canberra Times , 26 October 2013; (p. 19) -
Against the Tide
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 19-20 October 2013; (p. 14,16)
Awards
- 2017 nominated Logie Awards — Most Outstanding Miniseries or Telemovie
- 2014 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
- 2014 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2014 shortlisted ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2014 shortlisted Indie Awards — Fiction