Toxic

Toxic vividly and viscerally depicts ... the reality of the Tasmanian salmon industry, which sells its product as the epitome of clean and green ... It is testament to the reverence with which Tasmanians regard the island’s most celebrated author that so many people with knowledge of what has gone on behind closed doors and inside the underwater feed lots have been prepared to go on the public record. Toxic connects jaw-dropping expert testimony with revelations uncovered by a few dedicated journalists and a ground-breaking Legislative Council inquiry, with little-known scholarly papers and international reports, to provide a devastating critique of not just a rogue industry but the system that facilitates it ... When truth is spoken in a small community, it is never without cost. The courage of those who have gone on the record (not forgetting the author himself) ensures that, despite the tragedy it documents, Toxic is not a depressing book to read. Flanagan dedicates his book to ‘all the brave women’ who helped him write it, and they are a remarkable collective ... In its beginning and at its end, Toxic is a meditation on home. From his Bruny Island shack, source of family joy and wondrous words, Flanagan has personally witnessed the loss of species after species since the feedlots arrived. As with his recent novel, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams (2020), he challenges us to open our eyes and face the truth of diminishment – not just of the natural world but of ourselves.

James Boyce, Australian Book Review