“The Last Fish”: Environmental Collapse and Food Crisis in Pink Slime (2024) by Fernanda Trías

At the end of Pink Slime (2024) by Uruguayan writer Fernanda Trías, the unnamed narrator/protagonist eats tuna from a can and drops the empty container in the river, where it “floated for a moment until the water found its way in and dragged it to the bottom.” This scene mirrors the opening of the novel, when a fisherman releases back into the water a fish “so slight that it made no noise as it broke the surface. The last fish.” The presence of the fish, first as a live being and then as a pres