No rating because I didn't finish. Something about this novel was pushing me away - I just couldn't get INTO it - even though on paper it should be right up my alley. Will get back to it when I can fully concentrate.

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

You may be familiar with the unreliable narrator trope in literature but what if the author and their translators themselves are the unreliable ones? The Extinction of Irena Rey 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 Grey Eminence, 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’ The Books of Jacob (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.

Other Reviews
Eight Translators Lost in a Forest by Carey O’Grady, The Guardian, March 2, 2024.

Soundtrack
I didn’t have to look very far at all for this one. Direct from the author’s acknowledgements is listed “an album titled The Suspended Harp of Babel 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 The Extinction of Irena Rey”.
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) here.

Trivia and Link
Jennifer Croft is interviewed about the novel on NPR which you can read or listen to here on Author Interviews with Scott Simon, March 2, 2024. ( )

Think Lord of the Flies only set in a forest in Poland and featuring translators instead of schoolboys. You'll know whether or not you're think kind of reader who would enjoy this. I certainly was.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own. ( )