Conversations from the Cullman Center: The Extinction of Irena Rey: Jennifer Croft with Daniel Saldaña París
From the International Booker Prize–winning translator, a debut novel about eight translators searching for their vanished author in a primeval forest
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Eight translators arrive at a house in a primeval Polish forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace. The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. As they explore this ancient wooded refuge and study her belongings and texts, they discover secrets and deceptions of Irena Rey's for which they are unprepared. Jennifer Croft has written a hilarious, thought-provoking debut novel that examines art, celebrity, the natural world, and the power of language.
Jennifer Croft worked on The Extinction of Irena Rey during her 2018-2019 Fellowship at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She will be discussing her book with the award-winning Mexican writer Daniel Saldaña París.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Jennifer Croft, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, won the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for her memoir Homesick, and the International Booker Prize for her translation of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights. She is the translator of Federico Falco’s A Perfect Cemetery, Romina Paula’s August, Pedro Mairal’s The Woman from Uruguay, and Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob. She has also received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. She lives in Tulsa and Los Angeles.
Daniel Saldaña París is the author of three novels—Among Strange Victims, Ramifications, and The Dance and the Wildfire—and a collection of personal essays, Planes Flying Over a Monster. His work has been translated into several languages, and he has been included in Bogota39, a list of the Best Latin American Writers Under 40. The recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Banff Center for the Arts, the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, Art Omi, MacDowell, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, he has been awarded the Eccles Center & Hay Festival Writers Award in the UK, and his latest novel was a finalist for the Herralde Prize in 2021.
Tonight's program and chat are hosted by YouTube. We value your privacy and want you to understand how you and the Library use this service, particularly that by participating you might give data about yourself. The Library does not control that data. We suggest that you read Google’s Privacy Policy and NYPL's Privacy Policy, especially the section “Third-Party Library Services Providers.” To learn more, please visit this FAQ.
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In-Person
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The Cullman Center is made possible by a generous endowment from Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman in honor of Brooke Russell Astor, with major support provided by Mrs. John L. Weinberg, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Estate of Charles J. Liebman, The von der Heyden Family Foundation, John and Constance Birkelund, and The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and with additional gifts from Helen and Roger Alcaly, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Arts and Letters Foundation Inc., William W. Karatz, Merilee and Roy Bostock, and Cullman Center Fellows.