The Extinction of Irena Rey

International Booker Prize-winning translator and Women's Prize finalist Jennifer Croft's madly brilliant mystery novel of transformation and translation in Europe's last great wilderness.

“Savvy, sly, and hard to classify. A bacchanal.” -New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

“Fiercely inventive.” -Washington Post

“Knives Out on mushrooms.” -Elle

“Could only be written by master of language, a tamer of different tongues. It is brilliant, fun, and absolutely alive.” -Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Eight translators gather in the primeval forest home of the world-renowned Irena Rey. They are there to translate her magnum opus together, but within days of their arrival, Irena disappears.

The translators embark on a frantic search, delving into ancient woods filled with strange flora, fauna, and fungi and examining her enigmatic texts and belongings for clues. But doing so reveals secrets they are utterly unprepared for, and they quickly find themselves tangled up in a web of rivalries and desires that threaten not only their work, but the fate of their beloved author herself.