The Wind That Lays Waste: A Novel

Written by Selva Almada

Narrated by Almarie Guerra

The Wind That Lays Waste begins in the great pause before a storm. Reverend Pearson is evangelizing across the Argentinian countryside with Leni, his teenage daughter, when their car breaks down. This act of God or fate leads them to the workshop and home of an aging mechanic called Gringo Brauer and a young boy named Tapioca.



As a long day passes, curiosity and intrigue transform into an unexpected intimacy between four people: one man who believes deeply in God, morality, and his own righteousness, and another whose life experiences have only entrenched his moral relativism and mild apathy; a quietly earnest and idealistic mechanic's assistant, and a restless, skeptical preacher's daughter. As tensions between these characters ebb and flow, beliefs are questioned and allegiances are tested, until finally the growing storm breaks over the plains.



Selva Almada's exquisitely crafted debut, with its limpid and confident prose, is profound and poetic, a tactile experience of the mountain, the sun, the squat trees, the broken cars, the sweat-stained shirts, and the destroyed lives. The Wind That Lays Waste is a philosophical, beautiful, and powerfully distinctive novel that marks the arrival in English of an author whose talent and poise are undeniable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Translator: Chris Andrews
• Release date: Jul 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684573134

Selva Almada

Compared to Carson McCullers, William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, Selva Almada (Entre Ríos, Argentina, 1973) is considered one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Latin American literature and one of the most influential feminist intellectuals in the region. She has published several novels, a book of short stories, a book of journalistic fiction and a film diary (written on the set of Lucrecia Martel’s film Zama ). She has been finalist for the Medifé Prize, the Vargas Llosa Prize for Novels, the Rodolfo Walsh Award and of Tigre Juan Award. Her debut in English was The Wind that Lays Waste (Winner of the EIBF First Book Award 2019), followed by Dead Girls (2020), Brickmakers (2021), and Not a River (winner of the IILA Prize in Italy and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2024).

Reviews for The Wind That Lays Waste

[Hannah Burns · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A preacher and his teenage daughter meet a mechanic and his naive apprentice when they brake down in the Argentinian countryside. This novella is an account of that single day. We get a brief and intriguing glimpse into the inner worlds of these four very different characters but there wasn't quite enough depth for me and a little too much of the preacher's preaching

[psalva-706031 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the kind of book that raises a lot of philosophical questions and makes me wish I had read it with a group so I could discuss its implications. The story itself deals with Reverend Pearson and his daughter Leni. Their car breaks down and they end up at the home/auto shop of Brauer and his boy assistant. The characters’ conflicting philosophical views end up becoming a focus of the book. Religious morality vs. apathy, moral relativism, and skepticism. This was the author’s debut and her poetic writing really shines. As for the story, I need to reflect more on my feelings about it.