Farley Mowat has courted a great deal of controversy over the years. Famously depicted as a Pinocchio-nosed liar on a 1996 Saturday Night magazine cover, Mowat has never been able to shake the accusation that he embellishes his stories. Despite this, Mowat has obstinately continued to pen straightforward books advocating better treatment of northern First Nations groups, conservation of Canadian wildlife, and more.

Picking up where his 2008 memoir, Otherwise, left off, Mowat’s new book traces his development as an author, with ­frequent digressions on subjects such as home-­building, family, and wildlife. (His language is especially affectionate when describing animals, and in his acknowledgments he thanks his “friends, human and otherwise.”) Covering the episodes that shaped his particular worldview – from post-war ­research in the North to a sailing trip to Nova Scotia – the author takes direct aim at his critics by providing plentiful references to letters and other secondary sources to bolster his assertions. 

In its overarching argument, Eastern Passage insists that progress-obsessed humans are destroying each other and the rest of the natural world. Mowat includes descriptions of traders abusing a sick native boy; beluga whales dying after the U.S. Air Force dropped a nuclear fission bomb into the St. Lawrence River; and a large boat (“one of the big new draggers, fish killers extraordinaire”) nearly squashing Mowat’s own small vessel. The narrative employs fast-paced, clear prose that captures individual accents and personalities.

There is, however, a certain male-centred bias to the writing. Incidental male figures, such as a bush pilot, are rendered vividly, while Mowat’s first wife, Frances, and other female characters are not as developed. Despite this, Eastern Passage provides an insightful narrative that elucidates Mowat’s past.