Field Notes from an Extinction - Softcover

Eoghan Walls

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1911710281 ISBN 13: 9781911710288

Publisher: Seven Stories Press Uk, 2026

Synopsis

Written in the form of a 19th-century notebook of ornithological observations, Field Notes from an Extinction follows the life and work of one Ignatius Green, a fictitious English scientist dispatched by the Royal Society to the remote island of Tor Mor off the northern Irish coast. Green, a widower, is single-minded and self-righteous, brilliant and bumbling. He is determined to set the scientific record straight on the mating rituals, feeding and care of hatchlings, and other minutiae he can gather about the Great Auk (pinguinus impennis). Green's world is shattered when his monthly goods delivery arrives ravaged by the local Irish townsmen. His fury at their impertinence is matched only by his dismay at finding a small child amid the shipment - dirty, abandoned, mute, and utterly feral and unmanageable. Worse, the locals are growing restless and hungry. And there is talk sweeping the land of a terrifying woman with unnatural power. Green fights for his survival against brigands and hunger and, most fearsome, the resolve of a fierce and angry child. And, perhaps, for a wider understanding of family amidst roiling societal unrest.

About this title

About the Author

EOGHAN WALLS lectures at Lancaster University and lives in Lancaster. His debut novel The Gospel of Orla was praised by Colm Toibin as 'utterly convincing and fresh and original'.

Edition details

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press Uk
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1911710281
• ISBN 13: 9781911710288
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272