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A review by unfetteredfiction
The Wind That Lays Waste by Selva Almada
5.0
“His body was seized by the first spasm of a cough, which made him sit up suddenly and filled his mouth with phlegm. He spat it all out, as far as he could. Then he felt gut a cigarette and lit it.”
- Selva Almada, The Wind that Lays Waste, translated by Chris Andrews
This book, published by Charco Press, was everything I needed.
The story is a portrait of four interesting characters, two men, and two children. Each from their own worlds and thrown together by a perfectly ordinary scenario, a broken down car.
The preacher preaches, incredibly self assured in his methods and with a certain specific recruitment in mind. His daughter thinks, like a lot of young women do, about what they want and where their life is going, who they want and where they came from. Parallel to these two we have a mechanic and his son, or his employee. Out of the two this is the most tender relationship, one that I think really reflects care, consideration and selflessness. The mechanic drinks and fixes cars, teaching his son right from wrong in the only way he knows how, and perhaps in a better way than the preacher does, who knows.
Little things happen, big thoughts happen, and the day passes. This short book is truly excellent and an instant favourite. It goes without saying that I’ll be reading much more from Charco Press.
- Selva Almada, The Wind that Lays Waste, translated by Chris Andrews
This book, published by Charco Press, was everything I needed.
The story is a portrait of four interesting characters, two men, and two children. Each from their own worlds and thrown together by a perfectly ordinary scenario, a broken down car.
The preacher preaches, incredibly self assured in his methods and with a certain specific recruitment in mind. His daughter thinks, like a lot of young women do, about what they want and where their life is going, who they want and where they came from. Parallel to these two we have a mechanic and his son, or his employee. Out of the two this is the most tender relationship, one that I think really reflects care, consideration and selflessness. The mechanic drinks and fixes cars, teaching his son right from wrong in the only way he knows how, and perhaps in a better way than the preacher does, who knows.
Little things happen, big thoughts happen, and the day passes. This short book is truly excellent and an instant favourite. It goes without saying that I’ll be reading much more from Charco Press.