Field Notes from an Extinction

​”Eoghan Walls’s Field Notes from an Extinction is ingeniously rendered as ​a series of transmissions from an ornithologist stepping out of the shadows of his isolation to confront and contend with a creature beyond his realm of expertise: a human child. A historical novel that at times reads like a post-apocalyptic novel, in the best sense. Harrowing, shapeshifting, a strange and mesmerizing delight from the first page to the last.​” —Kevin Moffett, National Book Award-longlisted author of Only Son

“Vividly told, original in form, ambitious in scope and completely winning in its characterisation of the unlikely pair at its centre, a devoted English ornithologist and the young Irish girl he is saddled with against his will, Field Notes From an Extinction winds tighter and tighter its noose of horror until almost unbearable – a stark and compelling tale. Eoghan Walls has immaculate comic timing and the heart of a tragedian who knows how to bide his time – and land his gut-punches.” —Lucy Caldwell, Author of These Days, and Multitudes; winner of the BBC Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Literature

“I read Field Notes from an Extinction in one sitting, incapable of tearing myself away. Rarely have I read a contemporary novel that works so gracefully and yet so implacably on so many levels—dramatically, emotionally, and morally. It is a major accomplishment.”​ —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, winner of the National Medal of the Humanities and author of The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us

“Told from Ignatius’s prickly perspective, the novel’s interplay between emotion, empathy, and humor is deft and compelling.” —Foreword Reviews

“Here’s more fodder for the semi-annual call for more poet novels: Northern Irish poet Eoghan Walls’ sophomore novel is narrated via a nineteenth-century ornithologist’s notebook as he lives on a remote Irish island. Ignatius Green, ‘single-minded and self-righteous, brilliant and bumbling,’ must contend with hunger, suspicious locals, and a feral child. A darkly funny literary thriller about research, seabirds, and the terror of parenthood? Absolutely sold.” —LitHub

“Field Notes from an Extinction by Eoghan Walls is a quietly assured novel, one that approaches the long shadow and absurdities of colonialism with a deftness that is both unsettling and darkly comic. Beneath its surface, the book layers multiple strands of concern: the collapse of a species, the erosion of the natural world, and the quieter, more insidious mechanisms that govern migration and belonging. Walls handles these ideas with restraint, which gives the novel its subtle power. Field Notes from an Extinction is that wonderful type of novel where the reader may begin unsure of where it is heading, but is steadily drawn in, page by page, by its originality and emotional intelligence.” — Shane Grebel, Watermark Books

“This is so well-done! Walls chose to tell this from the point of view of Ignatius Green, English scientist studying auks on an island in Ireland. He cares more for his routine and the auks (although they are indeed in danger of dying out) than he does for the starving Irish population just a boat ride away, but he is forced to contend with reality when one of his food supply deliveries goes terribly awry. There are layers and layers to ‘extinctions’ in this novel, and Walls is incredible at character voices and setting. It seems like a sparse and fast-paced novel but it contains so much within.” —Anton Bogomazov, Head Adult Buyer, Politics & Prose

“This may be the most outlandish, mesmerizing book I’ll read all year. Ignatius Green is an ornithologist and proud British subject sent, at the behest of Sir Walpole Phillip to an island off the coast of Ireland to study the endangered Great Auk. Self-assured of his stature in British society, he is remarkably unaware of the ravages of the Great Famine spreading throughout Ireland. Single-minded in his commitment to studying the breeding habits of these rare birds, Green’s world is turned upside down when, nestled among a delivery of provisions, is a young, seemingly feral girl. As the story unfolds, I found myself questioning Green’s reliability as a narrator. Regardless, it’s a wholly original meditation on human nature.” —Pat Rudebusch, Orinda Books