'While I was reading Josephine Wilson's novel Extinctions, the thought that occurred to me most frequently was, "Why did I not hear of and read this book sooner?" Despite escaping my notice for the past two years, it did not go unrecognized in its country of publication: the book won the inaugural Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript as well as the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2017, and it is easy to understand why. This book is as humorous as it is profound and as original as it is successful.' (Introduction)