‘The Wind that Lays Waste’ by Selva Almada      (2012) – 124 pages             Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews

In the novella ‘The Wind that Lays Waste’, we have a classic situation. The Reverend Pearson travels throughout northern Argentina preaching sermons, trying to convert the crowds to Christianity. His 16 year old daughter Leni travels with him.

“God has given us words. Words set us apart from all of the other creatures living under this sky. But beware of words, for they are weapons that may be wielded by the Devil.”

Their car breaks down and they wind up in El Gringo Brauer’s car repair shop, having to stay in that small town for several days. Brauer’s 16 year old son Tapioca works with his father helping to repair the cars.

Brauer is a pragmatic man who works hard fixing cars and has little use for religion.

“Religion, in his view, was just a way of ignoring responsibilities. Hiding behind God, waiting to be saved, or blaming the Devil for the bad things you do.”

While waiting for his car to be fixed, the Reverend Pearson hatches this plan to take the mechanic’s son Tapioca with them on his preaching tour.

While the car is in the garage, a severe thunderstorm hits the town.

The Reverend smiled.

“Well, let’s just be grateful we weren’t on the road when the storm hit.”

“True. That would have been tricky.”

“You see what I mean. The Lord always has reasons for doing the things he does.”

“We’re not going to start talking about God, Pearson,” said the Gringo, gently shaking his head. “There’s plenty of things you couldn’t explain the reason why he does them like that. I’d run out of fingers pretty quick if I started counting them up.”

Selva Almada does not tilt her novella either way, toward the religious or toward the pragmatic. The author maintains a balance between the two mindsets. Ultimately the two fathers physically fight over their differences, but each father has a back story that makes the situation more ambiguous and less clear cut.

Grade :    A