image of person or book cover 6460608953797043331.jpg
Cover image courtesy of Allen & Unwin.
y separately published work icon Barracuda single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 Barracuda
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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)

Exhibitions

18388378
18387981
22511631
19567105

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Barracuda Belinda Chayko , Blake Ayshford , ( 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

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2013 .
      image of person or book cover 6460608953797043331.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of Allen & Unwin.
      Extent: 516p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 23 October 2013
      ISBN: 9781743317310 (paperback)
    • Toronto, Ontario,
      c
      Canada,
      c
      Americas,
      :
      HarperCollins (Canada) ,
      2014 .
      image of person or book cover 6721182012057606031.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 515p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 4 January 2014
      ISBN: 9781443424837
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Hogarth House ,
      2014 .
      image of person or book cover 1270981897725251918.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 464p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 9 September 2014
      ISBN: 9780804138420
    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2015 .
      image of person or book cover 2820925499376542244.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 516p.
      Note/s:
      • Published October 2015
      ISBN: 9781760291358
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 3518334926619476448.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 516p.p.
      Edition info: TV tei-in ed.
      ISBN: 9781760293253, 1760293253
Alternative title: Barrakuda : Roman
Language: German
    • Stuttgart,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Klett-Cotta ,
      2014 .
      image of person or book cover 292301162003232761.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      ISBN: 9783608980134, 360898013X
    • Munich,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Wilhelm Heyne ,
      2015 .
      image of person or book cover 3742135091746784446.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 480p.p.
      ISBN: 9783453418295, 3453418298

Other Formats

  • Large print.
  • Sound recording.
  • Dyslexic edition.

Works about this Work

Listening to the Imagined Sound of Contemporary Australian Literature Joseph Cummins , 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 Tomáš Kačer , 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 Jessica Gildersleeve , 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 Mark Azzopardi , 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 Andrew Hunter , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , November no. 477 2019; (p. 14)
Success Can Be a Burden Fran Metcalf , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 19 October 2013; (p. 19)

— Review of Barracuda Christos Tsiolkas , 2013 single work novel
Trouble at the Deep End of the Pool Ed Wright , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 26-27 October 2013; (p. 20-21)

— Review of Barracuda Christos Tsiolkas , 2013 single work novel
Christos Tsiolkas : Barracuda Annette Hughes , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , October 2013;

— Review of Barracuda Christos Tsiolkas , 2013 single work novel
Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas Mary Kostakidis , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 28 October 2013;

— Review of Barracuda Christos Tsiolkas , 2013 single work novel
Winning At Any Cost A Gentler Splash James Ley , 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 Christos Tsiolkas , 2013 single work novel
Tsiolkas No Stranger to Controversy Stephen Romei , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 12 February 2013; (p. 5)
Ponting Returns for Huge Innings Linda Morris , 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 Fran Metcalf , 2013 single work
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 19 October 2013; (p. 41)
Interview : Christos Tsiolkas Jason Steger , 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 William Yeoman , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 19-20 October 2013; (p. 14,16)
Last amended 21 Aug 2024 20:54:12
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