The Last of Its Kind by Sibylle Grimbert, translated by Aleshia Jensen

From award–winning French writer Sibylle Grimbert comes The Last of Its Kind, a moving story of friendship, trust, respect, and the desire to endure and survive.

In 1835, Gus, a young zoologist, is sent to Iceland by the Natural History Museum of Lille to study North Atlantic fauna. It is there that he witnesses the bloody massacre of a colony of great auks. Amidst the violence, the curious researcher pulls a single wounded bird from the water, unaware that he has recovered what will eventually be the last of its kind. Gus brings the initially suspicious animal home with him to study it. Instead of a research specimen, he discovers the beauty and majesty of his new companion, whom he names Prosp, and the pair eventually develop an endearing mutual affection.

Over the next fifteen years, Gus comes to realize that he is closely observing something inconceivable: the extinction of a species. From there, a singular preoccupation is born, and the inevitable fate of his feathered friend eclipses everything else around him. Gus’s burgeoning understanding, wonder, and obsession around the disappearance of a species and humankind’s role in its erasure mirror some of our questions today about the future of the natural world and our place within it.

Praise for The Last of Its Kind

“At the heart of this beautiful, delicate, and ultimately tragic novel is the relationship between a man and a large flightless bird that seems absolutely real. Sibylle Grimbert has done something quite miraculous.” —Cary Fagan, author of A Fast Horse Never Brings Good News

“The Last of Its Kind is beyond beautiful—it’s essential. What joy, what blessed relief to revel in the love at its core, to see through difference and look a fellow creature in the eye.” —Alissa York, author of Far Cry

Press Coverage

Most Anticipated: Our 2025 Fall Fiction Preview —49th Shelf

“Just like the scientists of the 1800s coming to grips with the reality of extinction, humans of the present day struggle with grasping the impacts of climate change and the potential for a “sixth wave” of extinction. The Last of Its Kind offers a timely and poignant reminder that what seems to be unthinkable may in fact be all too real, while at the same time encouraging compassion for the creatures affected by humans’ actions.” —Lisa Timpf, The Seaboard Review

The Seaboard Review of Books: Best 2025 Picks —Lisa Timpf, The Seaboard Review of Books

“Grimbert writes in an author’s note that for people living in the nineteenth century, “the idea of evolution was not part of their thinking….The concept that a species could go extinct remained confined to paleontology.” In this way, Gus becomes the first of his kind.” —Daniel Green, The Literary Review of Canada

Translating Extinctions: An Interview with Aleshia Jensen —Asymptote

Excerpted: The Last of Its Kind —All Lit Up