Meet the author - Christos Tsiolkas

Christos Tsiolkas, the acclaimed bestselling author of The Slap and Damascus, will be in conversation with Nigel Featherstone on his tender, sensual and moving new novel, The In-Between, a compelling contemporary love story between two middle-aged men, told with grace, heart and wisdom.

No life is simple, and no life is without sorrow. No life is perfect. Two middle-aged men meet on an internet date. Each has been scarred by a previous relationship; each has his own compelling reasons for giving up on the idea of finding love. But still they both turn up for the dinner, feel the spark and the possibility of something more. Feel the fear of failing again, of being hurt and humiliated and further annihilated by love. How can they take the risk of falling in love again. How can they not?

A tender, affecting novel of love, of hope, of forgiveness by one of our most fearless and truthful interpreters of the human heart.

'A great read with the idea of transformation at its heart . . . the power in Tsiolkas's writing is the compelling cocktail of the sacred and the profane'. Australian Books and Publishing

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of eight novels, including Loaded, which was made into the feature film Head-On, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, which won the 2006 Age Fiction Prize and was made into a feature film. His fourth novel, the international bestseller The Slap, won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, and the 2009 Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year. Christos's fifth novel, Barracuda, was shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal and the inaugural Voss Literary Prize. The Slap and Barracuda were both adapted into celebrated television series.

His sixth novel, Damascus, won the 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. 7½ was published in 2021, when Christos won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. Christos is also a playwright, essayist and screen writer.

Nigel Featherstone, whose latest novel is My Heart is a Little Wild Thing, was named the ACT Artist of the Year at the 2022 ACT Arts Awards. His 2019 war novel, Bodies of Men, was long-listed for the 2020 ARA Historical Novel Prize, Highly Commended for the 2020 ACT Book of the Year, shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards, and received a 2019 Canberra Critics Circle Award.

The vote of thanks will be given by Sally Pryor, Features Editor of the Canberra Times

This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop. Books will be available for purchase on the evening in the Cultural Centre foyer. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm and again after the event.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Registration is required for this event.

Accessible parking spaces are available around campus should you require them.

To help keep everyone safe, please ensure that you are familiar with, and follow, the advice from ACT Health regarding COVID-19.

If you do not feel well, please refrain from attending this event.

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A podcast will be made available after the event.

Symposium by University House Wine bar (Shop 13, 152 University Avenue, Acton, which is just next to the Kambri cultural centre) will now be open for dining after meet the author events. Food and wine details at https://unihouse.anu.edu.au/eat/symposium/. No bookings necessary.

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