The Slap

Set amongst a group of young, middle-class families in Melbourne, Australian author Christos Tsiolkas’s novel The Slap (2008) follows the drama that unfolds after a young father slaps his neighbor’s misbehaving child at a barbecue. The Slap won the 2009 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and has twice been adapted for television by Australian and U.S. producers.

The novel opens from the point of view of Hector, a successful, handsome forty-something businessman and a second-generation Greek Australian. He and his Indian Australian wife, Aisha, are throwing a barbecue for friends and neighbors.

On the way to the shops, Hector stops off to see Connie, the teenage assistant at Aisha’s veterinary clinic, and we learn that they are having an affair. When he returns, Hector masturbates, thinking about Connie. She has been invited to the barbecue, and Hector decides that he will break off their affair later.



We meet the guests as they arrive. Hector notices that Gary, the husband of Aisha’s old friend Rosie, is drinking too much. The well-to-do guests recognize that Gary feels self-conscious about his working-class background and low-paying job.

Gary and Rosie’s four-year-old son, Hugo, is behaving tyrannically with the other kids. When he throws a tantrum, Hector’s cousin Harry picks him up. Hugo kicks him, and Harry slaps him.

Gary immediately threatens to sue Harry. Rosie rushes to comfort her son. The guests begin to depart.



The point of view switches to Aisha’s friend Anouk. She is pregnant, but she hasn’t told her much-younger boyfriend. At work, she pushes aggressively for a provocative script: she understands that her hormones are changing her behavior.

On the phone, Anouk tells Aisha that Hugo deserved to be slapped, but Aisha disagrees. Later, the three of them meet for a drink and Anouk tells Rosie she is bringing Hugo up badly.

Anouk inquires about an abortion and resigns from work to write a book.



The next point-of-view is Harry’s. His interior monologue reveals he is arrogant, racist, and given to violent fantasies: he imagines smashing Hugo’s skull. He, too, is having an affair.

His wife, Sandi, has tried to negotiate a peaceable settlement to the slapping affair. Gary and Rosie throw a party and invite Harry, Sandi, and everyone else. Rosie insults Harry, and Harry again frightens Hugo, by knocking a chair over. When Harry learns that his wife has been negotiating with Rosie behind his back, he reacts so angrily that she fears for her safety.

From Connie’s point of view, we learn that Hector has ended their affair and that she’s upset about it. In retaliation, she tells her best friend, Richie—untruthfully—that Hector raped her. We learn that Connie’s father is dead and that she lives with her aunt. Connie thinks that the slap was unforgivable.



Rosie’s point of view fills us in on the backstory of her relationship with Hugo. His was a difficult birth and she struggled to attach to him. At six months old, she almost contemplated walking out on the screaming baby—but this moment proved a turning point. Since then, Hugo has been her whole world. She is contemplating sabotaging Gary’s condoms in order to have another child because “Hugo needs a brother.”

Rosie and Gary have brought a complaint against Harry before a judge, but the complaint is dismissed. Gary, frustrated, begins to drink heavily. Rosie finds herself lying to her friends and family as her life begins to fall apart. One day, Gary racially insults her friends, who ask her not to contact them again. When she gets home, Gary is passed out on the lawn.

The next point of view is Hector’s father Manolis. He and his wife attend a funeral, and discuss the rift between them and their daughter-in-law Aisha. They disapprove of the fact that Aisha has snubbed their nephew Harry in solidarity with her friend Rosie.



We switch to Aisha’s point of view as she travels to a conference, where she has sex with a colleague—her first infidelity to Hector. Meanwhile, Hector is having a mid-life crisis. He admits to his affair with a teenager (although he doesn’t name Connie), and Aisha admits to her own infidelity. Aisha is angry, but the couple is reconciled when Hector agrees to move to a different school district.

The final point-of-view character is Connie’s gay friend, Richie. While the two of them are babysitting Hugo, they find a photo album containing a picture of the young Hector. Richie steals this photograph. When he sees Hector at the swimming pool, Richie is overcome with embarrassment.

As Richie carries Hugo home from the park, Hugo spits at a stranger. Richie tells the boy to apologize, but Hugo refuses. Richie pulls Hugo by the arm, and Hugo arrives home crying. Rosie refuses to believe Richie’s version of events. When Rosie rebukes Richie, telling him that it’s wrong to hurt people, Richie blurts out that Hector raped Connie.



Gary and Rosie rush to tell Aisha, only for Connie to confess that she made it up. She accuses Richie of being obsessed with Hector, citing the stolen photograph as proof. His mother, appalled, slaps his face. Richie goes home and takes an overdose. His mother arrives home in time to save his life. In the aftermath, the characters are reconciled to one another.

Hailed as an “astute exploration of suburban aspirations and failings” (Publisher’s Weekly), The Slap was a bestseller in Australia, Britain, and the U.S.