“Ms. Croft’s great achievement is to marshal this mushrooming material with lightness and élan. For “The Extinction of Irena Rey” is above all tremendous fun. Much of the entertainment is derived from the fractious interplay between Spanish (revealed to be called Emi) and English (Alexis). This friction can be seen through Emi’s choice of reported speech (Alexis is forever “droning” or “chirping”), or via Alexis’s own very Nabokovian translator’s comments, in which she frequently, and hilariously, undermines Emi’s perspective.”
Featured in “Best books about books from Little Women and The Book Thief to Fahrenheit 451” by Saskia Kemsley in The Evening Standard
“This is the first of many clues that The Extinction of Irena Rey is going to be a wild ride. And it delivers, spectacularly. Croft has written a bizarre book, simultaneously unsettling and ludicrous.”
“The Extinction of Irena Rey is, I’d say, the first novel since Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad to pull off a chapter written in the mode of a relatively new app or program: PowerPoint for Egan, Instagram for Croft. But though Croft’s good at both Instagram-caption-as-story and, more broadly, at integrating social media and internet research into a novel about the archetypally analog subjects of nature and literature, she shines most of all in her use of a very old technology: the footnote. ”
Featured in Vanity Fair
Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Foreword, and Library Journal Starred Reviews
A March Indie Next Pick
The Millions, LitHub, Financial Times, Debutiful, CrimeReads, Alta Journal, and New Statesman Most Anticipated
From World Literature Today, by Hannah Weber
Trade Reviews:
Publisher’s Weekly (Starred): “Translator and memoirist Croft (Homesick) serves up a wickedly funny mystery involving an internationally famous author and her translators. It’s 2017 and narrator Emi, who hails from Buenos Aires, is one of eight translators visiting celebrated Polish novelist Irena Ray’s house in the ancient Białowieża forest. This is the translators’ seventh “pilgrimage” to Białowieża, where they’ve gathered to put Irena’s latest tome into their respective languages. All of them worship Irena, whom Emi calls “Our Lady of Literature,” with hilariously slavish devotion. When Irena disappears, so does their collective sanity, and thus begins a twisty detective story. Efforts to track down Irena are interspersed with various “bizarre actions” involving snakes, mythological Slavic creatures, archers, patriots, and attempted murder. Each of the perils is absurdly entertaining in its own way, and the endangered forest’s fungi capture Emi’s imagination and provide Croft with a magical and metaphor-rich backdrop. Emi’s relationships with her colleagues, who are nicknamed for the languages they’re translating Irena’s novel into, further enliven the narrative as it reaches a poignant denouement. The novel’s greatest strength, however, lies in Croft’s energetic set pieces, demonstrated most mirthfully in the “catfight” that takes place between Emi and “English,” whose footnotes provide her with a juicy opportunity for revenge. This is a blast.”
Booklist (Starred): “Searching for their beloved author in deep Polish woods, a coterie of translators confront an ambiguous text and the perception-distorting realities of imminent environmental collapse. Eight sophisticated literary translators, initially identified only by their respective target languages, convene at a remote cabin near the Belarussian border to collaborate on reverent translations of a major new work by Irena Rey. But something seems off with the world-renowned novelist, and when she disappears, perhaps into the vast Białowieża forest or perhaps into some other lifeform altogether, the group searches for clues and descends into disarray. Could Grey Eminence, Rey’s masterpiece, really suggest that our current extinction event is a consequence of humanity’s need to create, to transform our world to give it meaning? Is it possible that the whole scenario is an elaborate performance piece? Croft, herself an acclaimed literary translator (of Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, among others) both celebrates and lampoons translation communities, which being both altruistic and parasitic, resemble the complex dynamics of forest biomes. Editorial footnotes, provided by the narrator’s own supposed translator, are delightfully wry. But beneath the satire and the metafiction lie a lament for our all-too-real ongoing ecocide and a desperate appeal that humans might emulate fungi and find sustenance within the destruction.”
Library Journal (Starred): “Eight translators gather in Poland to translate world-renowned author Irena Rey’s latest novel. But Irena is acting out of character, and soon after their arrival, she disappears. Torn between completing their work or tracking down their author, the translators come into conflict, particularly Spanish-translating Emi and English-translating Alexis. As their efforts embroil them in nationalist tensions and the destruction of a nearby forest, they grapple with whether the community, and their author, really want them there. Croft’s novel is Emi’s account of events, translated by Alexis, presenting readers with an unreliable narrator who is further obscured by an unreliable translation. Croft explores the idea of invasiveness through the relationship between translator and author but also through climate change, nationalism, and theft. The building unease of the plot is offset by the back and forth between Emi’s text and Alexis’s footnotes, which add humor even as they cast doubt on events. Readers are left unsure what to trust, as the novel questions if true, accurate translation is possible and what is lost along the way. VERDICT This fiction debut from Booker Prize–winning translator Croft (Homesick: A Memoir) is a metatextual feast that will keep readers wondering even after the book concludes.”
Foreword Reviews (Starred): “The Extinction of Irena Rey is an incisive literary novel that troubles the divide between art, its interpretation, and real life.”
Other Reviews:
“You’ve read the work of brilliant translator Jennifer Croft before—the translation from Polish of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights and The Books of Jacob (also Romina Paula’s August and Sylvia Molloy’s Dislocations, among others). Her debut novel, The Extinction of Irena Rey, follows eight translators who gather in Białowieża forest to meet with world-renowned author Irena Rey in order to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears and the translators, slavishly devoted to “Our Lady of Literature,” attempt to find her. In an interview with the New York Times, Croft says, “Translators overwrite originals, making texts in other languages visible and invisible at once. Without translators, literary traditions and even languages might rot in isolation. With translators, the literary ecosystem keeps up the diversity it needs in order to flourish.” With this knowledge, The Extinction puts translators first, and with humor and grace explores art, celebrity, and the power of language.” –Emily Firetog, deputy editor, LitHub Most Anticipated (https://lithub.com/lit-hubs-most-anticipated-books-of-2024/3/)
Author Blurbs:
"The Extinction of Irena Rey could only be written by master of language, a tamer of different tongues. It is brilliant, fun and absolutely alive."—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All Stars
“Mischievous and intellectually provocative, The Extinction of Irena Rey asks thrilling questions about the wilderness of language, the life of the forest, and the feral ambitions and failings of artists."—Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning
“A wild and wonderfully unruly novel about translation and transmission, The Extinction of Irena Rey is a showcase for Jennifer Croft’s acrobatic intellect, delicious humor and voluptuous prose." —Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies
"Generous and strange, funny and disconcerting, The Extinction of Irena Rey is a playground for the mind and an entrancing celebration of the sociality of reading, writing, and translation written by a master practitioner of all three." —Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
“In The Extinction of Irena Rey, Jennifer Croft mines the complexity of translation, adoration, and symbiosis. At once a meditation on the networks required to bring literature to worldwide readers and a page-turner about the inevitable fallibilities of those systems, Extinction's push and pull is both thought-provoking and thrilling. I was rapt." —Emily Nemens, author of The Cactus League
Bookseller reviews (25 Indie Next Votes):
“I am as obsessed with this incredible book as these abandoned translators are with their elusive author! What an incredible exploration of language and power, isolation and ambition, and the unrelenting force of the natural world. THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY is everything a novel can and should be—sharp, evocative, funny, mysterious, surreal—I spent a whole weekend reading it and will spend months thinking about it!”— Amali Gordon-Buxbaum, Books Are Magic, New York, NY
“I am as obsessed with this incredible book as these abandoned translators are with their elusive author! What an incredible exploration of language and power, isolation and ambition, and the unrelenting force of the natural world. THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY is everything a novel can and should be—sharp, evocative, funny, mysterious, surreal—I spent a whole weekend reading it and will spend months thinking about it!”
—Amali Gordon-Buxbaum, Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, NY
“This book was a wild ride that took me places I didn't expect to go. Smart, original and incredibly funny, Croft has written an absurdly entertaining dismantling of literary pretension.”
—Jade Tisserand, Third Place Books, Seattle, WA
“What can't she do?! Startlingly funny, engaging mystery that also works to rewire the way you think about translators and translating.” —Matthew Burris, Magic City Books, Tulsa, OK
“A unique case of my current interests (an inside baseball peek into the world of professional translators) served up as a Jenga tower composed of personalized reading blocks (dark comedy, paranoia, regional lore, cabin fever, mysterious shenanigans, reality tv tomfoolery, etcetera etcetera). From the onset, we’re introduced to the unreliable translator transcribing an unreliable author, the former dropping footnote rebuttals to the latter’s snarky slander throughout. Imagine the setup, mid-story surprises, and alliance-treachery of Clue starring the cast of any season of The Real World. I fear I’ve pulled out some of the Jenga blocks just by mentioning any of this, so I’ll reluctantly hush, as this is a hard one to shut up about.” —Ian McCord, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
“This was an engaging literary novel . . . [A] play on the insider politics of literary translation and the international literary community. Croft's love of language in all forms shines.” —Heather Freeman, Page 1 Books, Albuquerque, NM
“A complex, layered, spiraling debut. Croft carefully crafts a beautiful, entrancing mystery that follows a group of translators who realize they might not know each other or their author as well as they think they do. Smart, funny prose and vibrant characters kept me enthralled. I loved this book so much and I will be thinking about it for a long time.” —Mallory Melton, BookPeople, Austin, TX
“A sharply funny and whip-smart allegory about translation as the death of an original text. A wild ride you won't want to miss!” —Lindsay Ryon, Compass Books, SFO, San Francisco, CA
"A beautiful, engrossing novel about translation, art, destruction, and creation through collaboration. This book's layers take you deeper and deeper into the primeval forest of Irena Rey, her translators, and the intricately complex nature of artistry, obsession, and where the lines between them blur." —Andrea Avey, Magic City Books, Tulsa, OK
“Absolutely brilliant and SO funny. What's better than an unreliable narrator? TWO unreliable narrators. A study in how a charismatic leader can warp even the smartest people's minds, and how we can convince ourselves of ludicrous beliefs to feel more at home in the world and in our bodies.” —Elayna Trucker, Napa Bookmine, Napa, CA
“Jennifer Croft is an award-winning translator. And now she is a full-on author, with the release of a debut novel that tells a special story about - what else? - an author who is visited by eight translators from different countries hired to work on her latest manuscript. But then the world sensation - Irena Rey - disappears into a Polish forest surounding the house where she is meeting with her translators.” —Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, WA
“This book has everything I love: lush prose, eerie atmosphere, fascinating characters, and an unsettling mystery that will keep you turning the pages. Acerbic little asides in the footnotes keep the reader aware of the unreliability of the narrative, while allowing two perspectives to slowly observe the events of the novel, when eight translators converge at a house on the edge of a primeval forest to translate their Author's magnum opus, but she then disappears. Beautifully written, funny, intense, and utterly memorable. All the stars!” —Fisher Nash, Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville, KY
"Tremendously impressive. Peeling back the layers in this novel was way too much fun, particularly for a reader of Croft's many wonderful translations, and as a reader of translated literature in general. Think Suzanne Simard or Merlin Sheldrake meets Agatha Christie meets your favorite obtuse European novelist. Lord knows how Croft wrote a novel perfect for me, but she did it. The book comes complete with translator's footnotes, in the funniest goddamn way, which tickled me pink all the way through. It's got a hook. It's got digressions on the art and role of the translator. It has literal smoking guns. Who comes up with this stuff? You can imagine Croft herself, crafting plot point after plot point (did I mention this book has a PLOT???), having the time of her life. As did this reader." —Spencer Ruchti, Third Place Books, Seattle, WA
"This twisting tale of translators and their idol author has left me in awe. Croft has beautifully sewn nature and fungi's job of decomposition into the push and pull of who owns the narrative once it is in translation. She makes an ingenious choice to put the final story in the hands of a translator, who gives her opinions and some colorful additions to the text in the footnotes, which adds another complex layer to the story. Overall beautiful prose and a fantastic novel." —Josie Williams, Invitation Bookshop, Gig Harbor, WA
“This beguiling and mysterious novel is one of my favorites in a long time. In elegant prose, Croft beautifully blurs the lines between reality and fiction, translation and the translated, leaving the reader with a deep sense of wonder and awe for the labyrinthine universes that exist within and between languages and places.” —Maxwell Shanley, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, CA
“A madcap adventure where eight mostly-faithful translators vascillate between searching for their Nobel-nominated author Irena Rey, who has mysteriously vanished, & translating her next great novel. Full of mushrooms, mayhem, theft, & lies, THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY is a wickedly clever exploration of art & ownership--truly some of the most fun reading I've had this year!” —Jenn Fain, Changing Hands, Tempe, AZ
“A beautiful puzzle box of a novel, a mystery wrapped in an exploration of language, satirizing the absurdity of academia, cloaked in fascinating details of the natural world, told to us by one unreliable translator as translated by another. Jenny Croft deftly weaves together every layer into a brilliant and often hilarious tale of translators who have lost their muse and the surprising discoveries they make as they find they must unravel this story on their own.” —Luisa Smith, Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA
“A delicious nesting doll of a book. Croft weaves together an almost mythical satire of obsession and the relationships between translator and author. Unpredictable and darkly funny - I enjoyed every minute I spent with this eclectic group of translators and their missing muse!” —Bradley Bryant, Books Inc., San Francisco, CA
“Croft does an excellent job of transposing the life of a literary translator into novel form. She has fun with language, showing a real mastery of words which she uses to build a twisted world of obsession where translators as acolytes come to terms with the disappearance of their fawned after author.” —Richard Dixon, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC
“What starts as a thriller-whodunnit where you can't trust a word anyone is saying suddenly takes a psychosexual turn into the wilderness. Peppered with juicy morsels on fungi and translated literature, from one of the preeminent translators working today, The Extinction of Irena Rey is a heady, shapeshifting delight.”
—Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
“A lush, inventive, and intriguing exploration of the author-translator relationship, Croft's debut novel is full of mystery, satire, and insight.” —Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books, Beverly, MA
“A knotty and surprising book that reveals layer after layer of meaning and humor the deeper you dive. I've been a big fan of Croft's translation work, but even then couldn't have anticipated the gleeful nature with which she crafts this unreliable narrator, herself a translator of an unreliable author, as she traverses a series of strange and more-than-a-bit silly setpieces. It's a delight.” —Bryan Seitz, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
“THE EXTINCTION OF IRENA REY is a wild, hilarious, smart novel with something for everyone: a mystical forest, a missing person, vast networks of fungi, discussions of literature and translation, footnotes that are actually fun to read, and a deeply unreliable narrator (or pair of narrators). I was struck over and over again by Croft's bold sense of plot and humor, as well as her deep knowledge of world languages, cultures, and histories. I don't want to say too much because part of the fun of this novel is in unraveling the format and premise. This is a book I'll be thinking about for a long time and recommending to just about everyone I know.” —Cassie Fancher, Literati Bookstore, Ann Arbor, MI
“Eight translators convene to translate the latest novel by a beloved and enigmatic author, only for her to promptly disappear entirely, leaving them uncomfortably to themselves at her home in the rambling Polish forest. Curious things starts to happen, secrets are revealed, and no one can be trusted. The way this story unfolds is truly wild, involving the intricacies and limitations of translation, the consequences of idolatry, and people who think they know more than they actually do! Croft has formulated a deeply rich and funny world--she is as gifted a storyteller as she is a translator herself.” —Spencer Friedman, Oblong Books, Millerton, NY
“Idolatry, suspense, and a big dose of humor swirl together in this wonderful narrative about a famous writer and the translators gathered at her secluded home to translate her latest novel. Croft's writing is precise and elegant--a testament to her status as one of our finest working translators. A smart, fun novel that is a literary page turner.” —Lori Feathers, Interabang Books, Dallas, TX