Christos Tsiolkas Wins Prestigious Literary Prize

Christos Tsiolkas has won the prestigious 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for his best selling book “The Slap”, according to an announcement at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival in New Zealand. In his book Mr. Tsiolkas, an Australian author of Greek descent, describes an incident in which a man slaps a child during a barbecue from the perspective of eight different people.
Mr. Tsiolkas is also the author of “Loaded” (1995), “Jesus Man” (1999) and “Dead Europe” (2005). He has also been shortlisted for the “2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award” and was awarded first prize by “The Age” newspaper for his book “Dead Europe”. The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize carries a substantial financial award and a meeting with Queen Elizabeth.