Field Notes from an Extinction

English ornithologist Ignatius Green’s field work gets disrupted when he’s forced to take custody of a young girl during the 1847 Irish potato famine in this pitch-black comedy from Walls (The Gospel of Orla). The story unspools as a series of field notes written by Ignatius while he’s living on Tor Mor Rock, an uninhabited island off the coast of Ireland, recording the mating patterns and incubation habits of the garefowl, also known as great auks. At the outset, Ignatius has turned a blind eye to the famine, and is livid with locals from the nearby island of Inishtrahull for stealing from the monthly cache of food and supplies shipped to him from Londonderry. Adding to his ire, the shipment includes a 10-year-old Irish girl who knows very little English and is covered in sores and lice; when Ignatius tries to return her, the locals refuse to take her back. Interlaced with Ignatius’s notes are newspaper clippings about debt collectors being murdered in retaliation for an eviction connected to the girl. Walls documents Ignatius’s travails with mordant humor and adds depth to the portrayal by exploring his grief over the earlier loss of his wife. 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. (Mar.)