Author(s): Jennifer Croft

Adult Fiction | Bestsellers | Staff Favourites

From the International Booker Prize-winning translator, a propulsive, beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a 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. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens, and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues.

But doing so reveals secrets - and deceptions - of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for. Forced to face their differences as they grow increasingly paranoid in this fever dream of isolation and obsession, soon the translators are tangled up in a web of rivalries and desire, threatening not only their work but the fate of their beloved author herself.

This hilarious, thought-provoking debut by award-winning translator and author Jennifer Croft is a brilliant examination of art, celebrity, the natural world, and the power of language. It is an unforgettable, unputdownable adventure with a small but global cast of characters shaken by the shocks of love, destruction, and creation in one of Europe's last great wildernesses.

STAFF REVIEW by Lucinda and Millie

I picked this one up because the author, Jennifer Croft, translated the works of Olga Tokarczuk, who wrote ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’, another favourite in the store. ‘The Extinction of Irena Rey’ has a playful premise - the fictional protagonist has written this book in Spanish, and the novel we are reading has been translated into English by her hated colleague who is also a character in the book. This sets up a delightfully unreliable narrator who tells the story of eight translators who enter a primaeval Polish forest to translate the new work of their idolised author, Irena Rey. When she disappears a short time into their stay, their task turns from translating her magnum opus to attempting to trace her whereabouts. 

This book is a fun mystery, often witty and sometimes dark, with a strong ecological message throughout. Croft includes many of what we must presume to be her own thoughts on the art of translation which are fascinating to read, and the uncovering of the mystery and the true nature of the characters is surprising and striking. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in translations, and lovers of mysteries or Polish literature.