The Extinction of Irena Rey
Knives Out, but it’s a group of translators trying to figure out where their author — a famous Polish writer named Irena Rey (“Our Author” in their parlance) — has disappeared to after they convene in a forest village between Poland and Belarus to translate her newest novel, Grey Eminence. The Extinction of Irena Rey is written by Jennifer Croft, primarily (until now?) known for her translation work — she won the Booker in 2018 for her English translation of Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. I know of Croft because of her fab work of autofiction, Homesick, which she originally wrote in Spanish. The Extinction of Irena Rey is actually a novel in a novel; Croft has masterminded the story to be “written” by an Argentinian and then “translated” to English by an American. Got that?
Communication/language nerds or anyone who is intrigued by the idea of literature in translation and what that “means,” you’ll like this one. “Maybe we’re not altering the ecosystem, or maybe we’re just not altering it much. After all, every reading is an action a person takes upon a book. Actions produce reactions… We [translators] *could* be considered an invasive species. It really depends on how we do our jobs. All books are inherently collaborative experiences… We take that collaboration and make it intercultural. We step in, and we expand the audience. We just have to make sure we’re not taking up too much space. We need to tread carefully, and not only out of respect for the author.”
Fun, kind of mind-bending stuff to think about especially since Extinction is also about the climate as well as governmental/border conflict. But somehow Croft makes it loopily delightful in a Murder, She Wrote kind of way with references to Haruki Murakami, Karl Ove Knausgård, various national stereotypes … and even the ubiquity of stalking others’ social media accounts. (Hi!)
I’m pretty sure Croft is brilliant by all measures — generally people who are multi-lingual and write about such varied things as “postcards, translation, and exile” [according to a bio] are. She’s just translated all this into something fantastical for the rest of us.
originally published on instagram