Fell a little short of what I was expecting but I am obsessed with translation and the process of it so I was very invested. I think I would recommend to most people!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

DNF @25%

Boy this novel was so confusing. At first, I thought I would enjoy reading about translated authors, but unfortunately, the plot went haywire pretty quickly.

I absolutely loved the premise of this one when I read the description and it was such a fun, interesting read!!

I appreciated the grandeur of this novel, and loved a look at translator intricacies, the book just didn’t work for me.

A fine book with good writing, just not super compelling for me. It’s a fine literary fiction work and I think others will like it.

It makes sense that a book on translators is written in a way that makes clear every word is lovingly chosen. Hard to describe or pin down, but a beguiling mystery that will get its hyphae into you.

“The Extinction of Irena Rey” is mad with plot and language and gorgeous prose, and the result is a bacchanal, really, which is the opposite of extinction. Such is the irony of art. To quote the novel’s epigraph, which could not be more apt: “And so, they forged their duality into a oneness, thereby making a forest.” This novel’s a forest. Go explore.

As someone who admires Jennifer Croft's translation skills and have followed her translation career with Olga TokarczukI was eagerly anticipating this book, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. It had a sort of meta quality, blurring the lines between fiction and memoir, with a narrative that was difficult to follow and contained lots of footnotes. The novel presented itself as a non-fictional account from the viewpoint of one of the translators, adding an intriguing layer to the storytelling, but ultimately, it left me feeling underwhelmed.

This book is like if Milton’s Paradise Lost was funny and sexy and cool. The Extinction of Irena Rey has it all: dark academia vibes, cool mushroom facts, an eerie, primeval forest, a very cool narrative framing device, sex, a chandelier made of bones, cults, birds, hidden rooms, an ancient god in the form of a park ranger. I tore through this novel. I started reading it on a plane expecting to spend maybe a half hour on it (for sleepy reasons) and instead I read it for the entire flight. I couldn’t put it down. And it’s funny! Please read this book it’s such a good book.

Eight translators come together at the home of a successful author in order to translate her latest work. To say that the translators are obsessed with the author is an understatement. After the author mysteriously disappears, along with her husband, the translators carry on, despite the weird circumstances. The story is told from the point of view of the Spanish translator, whose tale has been translated by her enemy, the English translator. I did like the snark in the footnotes written by the English translator, but neither of the women is a reliable narrator.

This book was too meta for me. I enjoyed parts of it, but mostly I found it confusing and trying too hard to be clever. At least it held my interest. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I don't know when I've last read a novel so frenetically presented, so unchallengingly hilarious, at times this-damned-close to slapstick. A translator (me), of course, would naturally be moved toward a book written by one of their own favorite literary translators (Jenny Croft), and when you throw into the package a gaggle (a murder?) of translators who routinely come together to work on the next great outpouring of their Beloved Author, I (ahem...the translator) just can't resist.

The plot is as deep and involved as you want it to be, particularly when the Beloved Author inexplicably disappears. Do the translators await her arrival, or do they try to solve what they feel is the mystery of the decade? Perhaps the crime of the decade?

The cherry on top of the package is the fact that Croft has made a background character of the now-defunct Tempelhof Airport, home to this particular translator for eight years. I just can't. Stop. Squealing.

I have really struggled with writing this review as I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading The Extinction of Irena Rey. It is truly well-written! Even still, I had a hard time connecting with the story. The description sounds amazing, but for some reason, this book just didn't work for me. The absurdness of the story was bizarre and not at all what I was expecting.

However, I enjoyed the banter and tension between Emi and Alexis. It was especially amusing discovering how Alexis felt about the situation. I also appreciated the many twists, and reading about the translators and how they worked with Irena made me curious about the translating process in real life.

Read this if you like:
• Books with a foreign film vibe
• Short chapters
• Locked room mystery
• Behind the scenes look at translating

Many thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC!

i tried to get into this a couple of times, but i'm not sure it was for me. i loved the idea and the premise, so maybe I'll come back to it later. it feels unfair to rate this, but it does feel like something i could enjoy in the future.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

The Extinction of Irena Rey is a fever dream of a novel. A team of translators meets in Poland to begin work on their author’s newest work. But tragedy strikes; their author is acting bizarrely and then disappears. Who are they really? Who is Irena Rey?

**Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the digital review copy of this title!!**

I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of this title. I was initially drawn in by the cover and stayed for the fever-dream plot revolving around eight translators.

The translators share a love for one thing - the written word of Irena Ray, a reclusive and obscure Polish novelist. As they travel back to the forest to translate Ray’s latest novel - they have no idea what’s in store for them.

I loved the commentary on obsession throughout this one and the blurring of lines between reality and something ~else.~

The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft is a well-written, unique story, but I had a hard time with it. I had trouble connecting with the story and the characters. This isn’t a book for everyone, but I am sure there will be many that will love it. I am positive that this is more of a me problem than any criticism of the book, please read the novel and judge for yourself.

NetGalley provided the advanced digital copy in return for my honest review.

This is the best mystery I have read in years. Because it is so much more than that and it is IMPORTANT. Every word mattered and I sincerely want to read this again. That never happens.

I'm so thankful to Bloomsbury Publishing, Jennifer Croft, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital and physical access to this one before it hits shelves on March 5, 2024. I really enjoyed being transported into this storyline and revolutionized by its prose.

<b>Unreliable Author & Translator Mystery Fun</b>
<i>Review of the Bloomsbury Publishing hardcover & eBook (March 5, 2024) read via a NetGalley Kindle ARC (downloaded February 14, 2024).</i>

You may be familiar with the unreliable narrator trope in literature but what if the author and their translators themselves are the unreliable ones? <i>The Extinction of Irena Rey</i> finds eight translators attending a translator ‘summit’ at the residence of their star Polish author Irena Rey in the primeval forest in Białowieża, Poland nearby to the border with Belarus. They are there to supposedly translate the author’s 10th work and expected magnum opus <i>Grey Eminence</i>, but soon after their arrival the author disappears. Can the translators be relied upon to accurately complete their work unsupervised?

Initially the translators are named only by their languages, so we meet the characters: English, Spanish, Swedish, German, French, Serbian, Slovenian and Ukrainian. Soon we learn their names, of which Emilia (aka Spanish) and Alexis (aka English) are most prominent. The whole book is Emilia’s memoir of the 2017 summit, written in Polish and translated in English by Alexis a decade after the event. Emilia sees Alexis as a rival however, due to competing translation styles but also for the affection of Freddie (aka Swedish). Events spiral out of control with attempted assassinations, pistols at dawn duels, false flag instagrams and author impersonations piling on until a cross-country journey leads to a final revelation.

Crazed lustful translators who battle with other translators eager to assume the identity of their mutual author make for one bizarre and fun literary novel. There is the especial delight of the often sardonic footnotes provided by Alexis who thereby seeks to correct her portrayal as the villainess translator by Emilia. The whole package is enhanced by obviously being a comic satire inspired by Croft’s own real-life experiences translating eminent Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and their mutual win of the 2018 International Booker Prize leading up to Tokarczuk’s 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature. Tokarczuk’s own ‘magnum opus’ <i>The Books of Jacob</i> (2014) appeared soon after in English translation by Croft in 2021.

My thanks to author Jennifer Croft, publisher Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this preview ARC, in exchange for which I provide this honest review.

<b>Other Reviews</b>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/02/the-extinction-of-irena-rey-by-jennifer-croft-review-eight-translators-lost-in-a-forest">Eight Translators Lost in a Forest</a> by Carey O’Grady, The Guardian, March 2, 2024.

<b>Soundtrack</b>
I didn’t have to look very far at all for this one. Direct from the author’s acknowledgements is listed “an album titled <i>The Suspended Harp of Babel</i> by Vox Clamantis (an Estonian choir) and Jaan-Eik Tulve (who directed the choir), which I must have listened to ten thousand times over the course of creating <i>The Extinction of Irena Rey</i>”.
You can listen to a sample track composed by Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek (1889-1962) “Päeval ei pea päikene“ (The Sun Shall Not Smite Thee) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmbqMAbM8M">here</a>.

<b>Trivia and Link</b>
Jennifer Croft is interviewed about the novel on NPR which you can read or listen to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/02/1235517914/jennifer-croft-talks-about-her-novel-the-extinction-of-irena-rae">here</a> on Author Interviews with Scott Simon, March 2, 2024.