The Extinction of Irena Rey
by Jennifer Croft
Buy on AmazonFrom the International Booker Prize-winning translator and Women's Prize finalist, an utterly beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a primeval Polish forest. Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace. The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece.…
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"In March Jennifer Croft, the International Booker Prize-winning translator of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights , will publish a novel—possibly her first, depending on how you define her earlier book Homesick . In The Extinction of Irena Rey , eight translators arrive at a house deep in the primeval forest ready to translate a book by a revered Polish author. Shortly after they arrive, the writer the have come to pay tribute to disappears. It’s a strange and very funny book that offers fascinating insight into the world of the literary translator."
Notable Novels of Spring 2024 · fivebooks.com
"This book has so many layers! Let’s start with the premise. Eight translators meet up at the home of a famous Polish novelist to translate her latest work – which is apparently so brilliant it could change the world! – into their respective home languages. But their beloved author goes missing, setting off their search for her in the nearby Białowieża forest – filled with so many layers of wilderness! The narrator is the Spanish translator, but we’re reading the story in English – it’s been translated by the English translator. Those two don’t get along. More layers! If you like language, literature – and fungi – this wild ride of a very esoteric mystery is for you."
NPR Books We Love — 2024 · apps.npr.org