Toxic Relationship

Have you ever wondered, long after it ended, who was really to blame?

Have you ever wondered, long after it ended, who was really to blame?

At its centre: Nelson Santo, a volatile and vulnerable Portuguese man adrift between London and Spain, and Rodrigo Schweininger, a clinical psychologist in New Zealand and Nelson’s former lover. When Rodrigo invites Nelson to stay rent-free in his dilapidated Spanish flat, what appears to be compassion begins to unravel – and so does any clear sense of who is wronged and who is wronging. Nelson experiences exploitation, broken promises, and abandonment. Rodrigo experiences blackmail, property damage, and manipulation.

Both are correct. Both are complicit.

Toxic Relationship is unlike any novel you have read before – and that is not a claim made lightly. Constructed entirely from WhatsApp messages, emails, and official complaints, it places you not in the position of a reader but of a juror. The evidence is before you. The verdict is yours.

For readers who have sat opposite someone and thought I am not imagining this – this novel will name what you lived through. For mental health professionals and legal practitioners who encounter personality-driven conflict in their work – you will recognise this. For anyone who has ever found themselves unable to explain a relationship to someone who wasn’t in it – this is the explanation.

The author is a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist with extensive experience in the UK and New Zealand and has previously published both scientific works and a novel.