An intriguing and singular setup ... At times strains credibility ... But this is a novel concerned more with the atmosphere of its setting than with narrative verisimilitude — it owes more to Jonathan Swift than to Émile Zola — and in this Walls succeeds admirably.
By turn bizarre, elemental and horrifying, Eoghan Walls crafts a compelling and convincing story of survival and apocalypse. The narrative device – Green’s ornithological journal, pressed into use as a chronicle of desperation – enables the story to be told in pared fashion, stripped of its flesh.
Poignant ... In the affecting, sardonic historical novel Field Notes from an Extinction, English prejudices are challenged by tumult and the humanity of the Irish.
While the conclusion is unsatisfyingly open-ended, readers will find much to admire, including a third-act twist. This blistering historical is worth a look.
