Field Notes from an Extinction: A Novel

by Eoghan Walls

Fast-paced and funny. Scientific and tender. A literary thriller featuring Auks. As if Hilary Mantel’s The Giant, O’Brien met Robinson Crusoe, here is a story of one man’s growing humanity amidst famine and extinction.

Told in the vernacular of the day, this novel-as-notebook features a 19th-century ornithologist on a remote Irish island—from the author of indie favorite The Gospel of Orla.

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.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Ireland, Nature, Historical, Birds, Thriller

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 3, 2026

About the author

Derry poet, writer, lecturer at Lancaster, father of battalions of daughters.

Reviews

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great Auk is having something of a moment in world literature. It became extinct in the mid-19th century and I had never heard of this beautiful bird until last year, when it first showed up in a brilliant short story by Ben Shattuck ('History of Sound') and then played a supporting role in 'Beasts of the Sea' (Iida Turpeinen). I also have Sylvie Grimbert's The Last of Its Kind on my shelf.

Eoghan Walls's novel is set on an isolated Irish island where the British researcher Ignatius Green studies the last breeding colony of the Great Auk (or garefowl). On the mainland, the Great Famine is raging, but Green is oblivious about this.

Then one day, when his supplies are delivered, he discovers that bizarrely one of the crates contains a little girl - for him to take care of. Where did the girl come from, who sent her and what do the murders of various bailiffs have to do with it?

An intriguing premise and a beautifully written novel, in the style of Carys Davies 'Clear' and Audrey Magee's 'The Colony'. And for once, maybe the Englishman isn't so bad after all...

Wholeheartedly recommended!

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, my favorite trope, the antisocial weirdo who gets suddenly thrust into a parenting role. Also, the disgruntled British commoners really brought their Disgruntled British Commoner A-Game. Kudos.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An English ornithologist is living on a remote island off the coast of Northern Ireland in 1847 to study birds. One day, his regular supply runner drops off provisions, including a large basket that conceals a mute, feral child on the brink of death. She survives, but his life is forever changed.
This charming novel is the ornithologist's diary, notebook, and sketchbook entries. It is at times very funny, terribly sad, and shockingly cruel. It takes place during the height of the Irish potato famine, which the Englishman sees as not his problem...until it is. The audiobook's narration is excellent. I enjoyed the scientist's approach to the unexpected, and the milestones he recorded as he and the child learned to communicate. I would have liked a more specific ending imagined for them. 4.6 rounded up for this unique and absorbing novel.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @TantorAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #FieldNotesFromanExtinction for review purposes. Publication date: 3 March 2026.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the those books that fit in very neatly everything that I love in a book. It is written mostly as a journal (a favorite) and fast paced. Taking place in Ireland in the 1840's and during an extinction event, you get the sense that it's the end of the world. Ig starts the book as a nature-loving scientist on a mission to document the Auks and ends up just a man trying to survive the wilderness and then the landscape of 1840's Ireland, all the while protecting the spirited Bridget. Definitely worth your time.

[Lisa Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all want to be the particular, self-absorbed Englishman Ignatius sometimes, setting to our own whimsies, doing what we want, uninterrupted by social expectations, and investing ourselves wholly in what we deem important. For Ignatius, it is the study of the last colony of Great Auk (“garefowl”), as he records in his field notebook the minute details of eight Shakespearean-named birds who themselves become minor characters in the book. “To the birds!”

But life is a series of interruptions, unexpected circumstances, and at the hands of a greater force of nature. Ig did not plan for the Irish Potato Famine and the unraveling of civilization. Nor did he prepare to take responsibility (which he does - tepidly at first) and care for a child. How can fate be asking him to give up what he thought he most desired?

I thoroughly enjoyed Eoghan Walls’ Field Notes from an Extinction. It is refreshingly different and asks the reader to see a little of themselves in Ignatius: striving to pursue excellence and professional respect while investing ourselves authentically in our relationships and taking stock of the greater world. Part ornithologist field notes, part journal, scraps of dialogue, and inserted news articles, I thought the genre-blending was clever and natural. If I am still thinking about a book and the questions it poses long after I finish it, then it was a good read.

[Nathan Kowal · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Really interesting commentary on family, morality, prejudice, and oppression. Written by an Irishman but following an Englishman during the Irish famine, Field Notes From an Extinction contains so many interesting English-Irish interactions. Our protagonist, Ig, drips with condescension and loathing for the Irish, famine and poverty be damned. He also finds himself thrust into a single father role, much to his dismay. A classic “grumpy parent learns to love their adopted child” trope, but it pays off immensely. This novel provides (what I imagine) is a look into the oppression and subjugation the Irish suffered at the hands of the English for many years. It’s also just a great story! It’s funny and charming and heartwarming and heart wrenching and has little illustrations of birds :) De Stiil strikes again

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. Lyrical, heartbreaking.

[Kip Kyburz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other reviewers have pointed out that the Great Auk and it's surprising extinction has now been prevalent in several recent historical/literary fiction books and while this book seems to be centering them more than those books do, Field Notes from an Extinction manages to be a much weirder and wilder book and is all the better for it. Our main man Ignatius is a naturalist sent by a lordly Brit to the coast of Ireland to study (and collect) Auks. Almost entirely self-(and bird)-absorbed, Ignatius seems incapable of recognizing the import of any social situation he finds himself in, or that these pesky Irish might have more to them than his essential Britishness allows him to believe. When a child is delivered to his shores with his provisions, Ig must adapt to a parental role without a common language. To reveal more would be to disservice the book, but so many odd but wonderful scenes play out over the rest of the book and the Auks become a distant memory (much like the actual Auks). A delightfully unhinged update on the naturalist novel.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC copy of the audiobook version.

I enjoyed the historical fiction with a scientist twist. The audiobook was well done, but I think I would have enjoyed this story more in written form where it’s written notebook style. But overall, it was entertaining and worth the read.

[Meghan Samyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a uniquely interesting read — 4.5 stars rounded up

[Kelsey Croft]

I did it, I found a book that was too weird and Irish for me. Didn’t think it was possible. This is a book for another time when I have more comprehensive capacity

[TJ Book Ninja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very odd, bizarre, and unusual novel written in the form of a notebook, it follows Ignatius Green, an arrogant English ornithologist who is dispatched to stay on a remote island off the coast of Ireland to study the last surviving colony of Great Auks.

This is a type of bird that kind of resembles penguins and are very quick when they are in the ocean, but they were extremely slow on land which is why they were slaughtered into Extinction so quickly, especially during the Great Potato famine in Ireland which killed so many people due to starvation and disease.

Historical fact, the last breeding pair of great auks, a male and a female were sitting on the very last egg known to exist and some filthy Wankers came along and wrung the necks of the breeding pair and in their haste to take the bodies, they smashed the last known egg and there you have it ladies and gentlemen, the Extinction of this species because of MAN. And so it continues every single damn day on this planet.

Anywho, Ignatius is on this island for research and has supplies delivered to him and unbeknownst to him, not only do a lot of his supplies not show up as they are pilfered by people who are starving on the opposite shores, but a young feral girl is delivered to him as well. This young girl who I believe is Gaelic, her mother is rumored in these highly superstitious communities to be a witch with incredible Powers. You do get to meet her mother later in the book and she is really something to behold. I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley, she is indeed a very intelligent woman but a very vengeful one. She was doing what she has to do to avenge something that had happened to her. Long story short, this was a very interesting novel both in the way that it was written and all of the characters that you meet along the way. It is a very wry and poignant historical novel. And even though it is set during the Great famine and deals with oppression, starvation, and death, the ending leaves you with a little bit of hope. It was a very interesting read.

[Rene Saller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored Field Notes From an Extinction and didn't want it to end. Funny, suspenseful, and ferociously humane, it hit me even harder than his debut novel, The Gospel of Orla, although it's difficult to compare the two, never mind that they were written by the same author, in what would appear to be a relatively short span of time. Stylistically and tonally, Field Notes reminds me a little of Robinson Crusoe, Huck Finn, A Confederacy of Dunces, and Pale Fire, although it isn't derivative in any way, and you will likely draw from your own stock of literary predecessors. Walls is a master of voice, and his narrators are singular. They don't sound like each other, like Walls, or like anyone but themselves: actual human beings with actual thoughts and independent interior lives that are suddenly somehow transparent and made available to you, the reader.

The narrator of Field Notes, a 19th-century English ornithologist named Ignatius Green, could not be more different from Orla, the tough and traumatized teenage heroine of the previous novel. Even so, he was intimately and fully present for me starting from the first few pages. It felt like a privilege to witness him evolve from insufferable prig to hapless buffoon to stoic nerd to someone I would not hesitate to embrace as a hero.

Any hack can make you hate our hateful species. It takes real talent to compel love. And I loved Ignatius and the barbarous child in his care; I loved the child's wild pirate mother; I loved every auk that he documented, observed, cherished, and mourned. Some of the events from this novel feel as real to me as if I had experienced them myself. If you're sick of the toxic self-regard that passes for profundity in so many contemporary novels, let Walls dispense the balm.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A harrowing and heartbreaking look at extinction events through the lens of historical fiction and naturalism. Walls' fictional English ornithologist, Ignatius Green, is thrust into the realities of the Irish Famine when the monthly supply shipment to the remote island he's camped on to observed the nearly extinct Great Auks contains a young Irish girl, suffering from the effects of the Famine and nearly feral. Ig, as she calls him when she begins speaking, is forced to become a parental figure while speculation about the girl's supposed mother (according to the note attached to the girl), a legendary Irish outlaw with many seemingly impossible feats attributed to her, and the pressures of the Famine take their toll on the nearest mainland community, eventually coming to a head in a violent confrontation between desperate parties and a journey through the heart of an apocalyptically famine-ravaged Ireland. The descriptions of the Famine are vivid, and the framing device of the story being related through Ig's surviving field journals adds a visceral layer to the story that it is utterly engrossing. Highly recommend.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel plot set in 1847 about an ornithologist living on an Irish island to monitor nesting of a small Great Auk colony. The Irish potato famine is in full force. His supplies arrive by boat one day and secreted within is a feral girl, filthy, incommunicative, and weak with hunger. He doesn't want her and doesn't know how to care for her. Its a weird mystery in an unusual setting. Short, fast read.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A both a Conservation Biologist and the decedent of the Irish diaspora this book felt immensely personal. At its heart the book centers the perspective of an ornithologist sent to a remote island to watch the last of the Great Auks. Ok, I'm in full stop with that plot point alone. However as the story progresses, he becomes the unwitting, and initially unwilling, caretaker of a child with a mysterious past. Equal parts found family and natural history this book talks about the extinction and the frightening ways that seemingly casual acts can lead to the last days. The Auks did not survive, the Irish did, but in bot cases the protagonist' job is to record, in epistolary fashion, the slow violence of loss. I immensely enjoyed this book and will be looking for was to integrate it into my classes.

[Kandace]

I received a copy of the audiobook from NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley

dnf :/ it’s not a bad book at all, the narrator does a great job! I just think this book in audiobook format isn’t for me. Perhaps reading the actual physical copy would be better for my understanding of the story. Perhaps I’ll pick this back up someday!

[Evy Kras · Rating 1 out of 5]

mwah mwah mwah waar gaan we heen? waarom houdt hij van die vogels? waarom is dat meisje zo raar?? ik heb heel veel vragen en vond het niet zo fijn lezen
nouja het was ook een gok van diegene die hm gaf

[Kevin Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

[Maddie Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

can’t wait for pedro pascal to play ig in the film adaptation

[Snail Busfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda made me broody for my future 6 beautiful hazel eyed children

[Martha Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book purports to be the field notes of a Great Auk trip by an Englishman to a small outcropping of rocks off the coast of Ireland during the time of the Irish Potato Famine(1847; the auk was supposed to have been extinct in 1844, so this is a tiny remnant of a once great population.) The main character is an oblivious Englishman ignorant of the plight of the Irish and politically sure that giving free food to starving people is wrong. Then, enter chaos. His supplies are delivered by the Irish employees of his wealthy British patron with an addition -- a young, very sick girl with a note pinned on her chest, telling our "hero" he needs to care for her. Meanwhile, there are numerous newspaper articles inserted about the murderous widow of man who was shot as the authorities were trying to destroy his house because he was unable to pay his rent. This is a meditation on both colonialism's lack of compassion and a cry of the heart against the recent rise of Irish anti-immigration activists, when in the 1800's Irish were leaving in droves for the US and other places just to survive. Remarkably funny, gender-bending, deeply researched fiction! I was glad I was warned that the ending does not offer a conclusion to the story, so I could just enjoy it without hoping for resolution.

Painfully funny story of the complete extinction of a species due to political differences, colonial indifference, and distain for the poor and starving. A parable for our time.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an odd book, that isn't entirely successful, but scores points for originality and heart.

First there is the structure of the book as a set of field notes. I don't think that I have seen this one before. Certainly, their have been novels structured as packages of letters or as dictionaries or encyclopedias and in other non-traditional formats, but not to my knowledge as a naturalist's field notes. There is a bit of a square peg in the round hole problem in doing this, but since Ignatius Green is himself a square peg in a round hole, there is an uncomfortable, but oddly appropriate fit between the form of the book and the character.

And then there is Green's character. He is difficult, fussy and filled with the prejudices of a Victorian gentleman. He's a stickler for rules, quick to bluster and threaten. He looks down on the Irish as being barely human. His study of the Great Auks is meticulous and filled with care for individual birds, though he pays little heed to the dominant fact that they are on the verge of extinction. But for all of his many and obvious faults, he is redeemed by his kindness. His care for Bridgett is awkward and incomplete. Of course, much of this is due to the language barrier between them (a metaphor) and to her own strange wildness (another metaphor), but it is mostly on account of the difficulty of a middle-aged nineteenth century Englishman to relate to a young girl (another metaphor). And yet he manages to bridge it to Bridgett, so that they develop a deep bond over the course of the book. At the end he's no Silas Marner. He's still a fussy prejudiced jerk. But he has demonstrated another side of his personality that allows us to like him.

The other principal characters -Bridgett, her mother, Father Frank and McGonnigal are also all deeply flawed and yet each of them has a very human motivation, at least when they are operating on an individual person to person level that gives them all a measure of redemption.

The book takes place in 1847, but I looked up the extinction of the Great Auks. The last pair was killed in 1840. Why would the author make that choice in a book that is careful about evoking the authenticity of its era? At first I thought that it was the author's way of reminding us that in the end this is fiction. Maybe that's part of it, but the bigger reason is that it is key to the story for it to take place concurrently with the Irish Potato Famine, which began in 1845. It was easier to keep a few Auks around beyond their expiration date than to push back the date of the famine to the decade when there were still some Auks.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars, rounded up to four.

This book was not what I expected. After reading Piranesi the day before, I thought that I may have detected some similarities between the two books. They are of similar lengths, written as journals by men who have been alone amongst the birds in a strange, isolated location, who are suddenly struck by the presence of an unexpected newcomer and mysterious happenings. That is, of course, where the similarities end. But still, I found my other expectations unmet, as well. The teasing of "restless and hungry" locals and a strange woman with "unnatural power" in the blurb suggest mystery, suspense, and supernatural happenings. Field Notes From an Extinction does not deliver on these subplots. They are present, sure, but fall flat for me.

The entirety of the book, even though the blurb would lead you to believe it is about a man and his birds, is actually about taking an unlikeable grouch of a man and humanizing him through caring for a child he did not ask for and was unprepared to handle. It is a solid "found father" story, a la Mandalorian or similar, and has enough surprises in it to keep it fresh even considering how popular this trope seems these days. It seems like a missed opportunity for the book to be marketed as 'Robinson Crusoe-meets-whatever' given how much of the story focuses on this character arc.

I think fans of "found father" stories will eat this up, because it is dramatic and different and raw. I will say, I did not enjoy the ending and thought it was unsatisfying, inconclusive, and disappointing. It was not, however, poorly done, so perhaps you will have better luck with it than me. Thank you to Seven Stories Press for supplying my work with this ARC!

[Rachael Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really on the fence about how I feel about this book. I had the audiobook which was narrated well, however I found the story a bit dry and I found myself losing focus on what was happening.

Ignatius Green is an English Scientist studying the last of the great Auks on a remote island. The story is told from a first person perspective but the language and vernacular used is a bit difficult to stay connected with. When he says things to other characters he says, "myself" and then proceeds to quote whatever he may have said during the interaction. During a monthly resupply of his goods, a basket is delivered with a child inside. Since we are receiving the story as a first person narration, we come to understand this scientist does not know much about children and has no idea how to manage one nor does he know how to document much about it.

We do learn the child is female and she is filthy and flea riddled. She also seems to know minimal words and is more or less feral as she does not seem to have any understanding of civility or understanding food rationing. She consumes raw foods such as taking bites of a seal being cleaned for cooking, and she also tries to eat other things which would be inconsumable by most.

Overall, the story is interesting, I am just not certain the way it was conveyed was the best for my style of reading or what I was expecting. I do understand it's mean to be a record of recorded events which happened to a scientist and he's trying to be clinical and clear about time lines, descriptions, and presenting only facts. Nevertheless, it just didn't work out as well for me and I was a bit bored.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tying together the extinction of the Great auk (aka Garefowl) and the Irish potato famine, this book is written in the form of ornithological field notes. The narrator is an entitled, blustery Englishman who shows much more tenderness, attention, and pity for the birds he observes on a rocky outpost than for the starving Irish people on the mainland.

I wanted to read it because of the birds, and indeed I learned a lot (assuming no fictional liberties have been taken?) about the Great auk. But the main story, which is the "gentleman" surviving on the island with dwindling supplies/water and an orphaned child, was rather distasteful, in part because of the disdain the narrator has for both the child and the other Irish people and their language, and in part because of the gruesome descriptions of all manner of sickness, disease, butchery, beatings, and so on.

A few other things bothered me. The girl was supposed to be 10, but not toilet or table trained? The narrator gives her a shirt and coat but no undergarments; she runs around naked on the rocky island and sleeps outside. How does she survive a fever in such conditions? But suddenly she recovers, is able to wield a knife and is very clever (only about certain things).

In the audiobook version, the actor was great, but it was tedious to listen to, probably because "field notes" are truly a textual medium. There are the descriptions of artwork/sketches, and the choice to render the writer's dialogue always preceded by "Myself:" feels really pretentious and gets really annoying.

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This would make a great film adaptation.
I think the strongest aspect of this book is the characters, which mainly include the protagonist, Ignatius Green and the child (that arrives unexpectedly). They most definitely drive the story in their own quirky way.
Written in a documentary, journal-like style (which I found interesting), the dialogue between said protagonist and child is the most exciting part of the book. I found myself skimming/reading faster over the meticulous documentation of the auks just to get to the dialogue between these characters, who find themselves basically isolated on a cold island.

I believe the plot was interesting, but certain aspects could’ve been explored further especially in the second half. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, but the second half felt rushed and almost unfinished.
The ending is why my rating is not a 4 star or higher – It quite literally abruptly ends, with little/no closure whatsoever. Coming from someone who doesn’t always need a perfect ending for every character, I did find this ending to be a bit disappointing and random.

With that being said, I do think Walls does a fantastic job at world-building and character-building. His writing style within this time period of the 1800s Ireland felt comfortable and natural; his vocabulary was quite impressive as well.

Overall, 3.5 stars.

[Peter Humphreys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eoghan Walls’ second novel is a leap and a bound (a flap and a squawk?) and almost 200 years removed from the premise of his first – the wonderful Gospel of Orla – but as in Orla, we are accompanied by a young, cliché-defying, ever-surprising (and they’re not always nice surprises..) female presence throughout the book; in this case a seemingly mute Irish girl dumped upon esteemed English ornithologist Ignatius (‘Ig’) Green whose journals we are reading (the to and fro with the irascible McGonigle, the boat-borne islander who acts as a lifeline to the isolated Green, providing some of the most memorable dialogue of the book).

As in his poetry, parenthood and parental care is a theme Walls returns to again and again – extracting its visceral nature and flashes of intense, existential love at the expense of anything more sentimental (field notes… as befits life during a dehumanising famine, instead takes its cues from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road). The writing is brilliant throughout; the voice of the pugnacious Ignatius unforgettable. To have him move between his quest to document his beloved Great Auks to the care of a feral child to facing (or not) the incomprehensible tragedy of (avoidable) starvation at scale is a masterclass in storytelling. Edited for spoilers, there is much more to say about field notes… but for now: extremely strong recommend!

[Heather W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Field Notes From an Extinction is a bold, inventive, and deeply humane novel that blends historical fiction, ecological reckoning, and dark humor into a singular literary experience. Written in the form of a 19th century ornithologist’s notebook, the novel captures the voice of its era with remarkable authenticity while remaining sharply relevant. Ignatius Green’s obsessive documentation of the Great Auk becomes both a scientific endeavor and a moral blind spot, revealing how knowledge can coexist with profound emotional isolation.

What elevates the novel is its widening emotional scope. As famine, colonial tension, and extinction close in, Green’s rigid worldview fractures under the weight of human connection most powerfully through his relationship with a feral, abandoned child. Walls deftly balances satire and tenderness, intellect and vulnerability, allowing the novel to move from meticulous observation to an unexpected meditation on family, responsibility, and survival. Fast paced yet thoughtful, Field Notes From an Extinction is a rare historical novel that feels alive, unsettling, and urgent.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Field Notes of an Extinction left me blinking at the final page wondering what, exactly, I’d just experienced. It’s one of those books that defies easy classification—part historical fiction, part mystery, part… something else entirely. And while that genre‑blending could have been intriguing, the plot ends up feeling scattered enough that it’s hard to ever get a solid grip on what the story wants to be.

That said, it’s not without its strengths. The writing itself is clear and concise, the character relationships are surprisingly well‑drawn, and the narrator absolutely carries the experience. Their performance adds emotional weight and cohesion the plot doesn’t always manage on its own.

Unfortunately, the story’s constant shifts and lack of focus kept pulling me out of the moment. Interesting ideas pop up, but they never quite settle into a satisfying whole.

I’m landing at 3/5, mostly thanks to the strong narration and the glimpses of what the book could have been with a tighter plot.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book!