The Seamstress And The Wind

As he runs wildly amok, Aira captures childhood’s treasures — the reality of the fable and the delirium of invention — in this hilariously funny book. The Seamstress and the Wind is a deliciously laugh-out-loud-funny novel. A seamstress who is sewing a wedding dress for the pregnant local art teacher fears that her son, while playing in a big semitruck, has been accidentally kidnapped and driven off to Patagonia. Completely unhinged, she calls a local taxi to follow the semi in hot pursuit. When her husband finds out what’s happened, he takes off after wife and child. They race not only to the end of the world, but to adventures in desire — where the wild Southern wind falls in love with the seamstress, and a monster child takes up with the truck driver. Interspersed are Aira’s musings about memory and childhood, and his hometown of Coronel Pringles, with a compelling view of the hard lot of this working-class town, situated not far from Buenos Aires.

When a local boy goes missing, his mother tracks a trucker on along-haul mission to the nethermost regions of Argentina where she discovers that the wind has fallen in love with her.

The surprising, magnificent story of a Panamanian government employee who, one day, after a series of troubles, writes the celebrated masterwork of modern Central American poetry. Unmistakably the work of César Aira, Varamo is about the day in the life of a hapless government employee who, after wandering around all night after being paid by the Ministry in counterfeit money, eventually writes the most celebrated masterwork of modern Central American poetry, The Song of the Virgin Boy. What is odd is that, at fifty years old, Varamo “hadn’t previously written one sole verse, nor had it ever occurred to him to write one.” Among other things, this novella is an ironic allegory of the poet’s vocation and inspiration, the subtlety of artistic genius, and our need to give literature an historic, national, psychological, and aesthetic context. But Aira goes further still — converting the ironic allegory into a formidable parody of the expectations that all narrative texts generate — by laying out the pathos of a man who between one night and the following morning is touched by genius. Once again Aira surprises us with his unclassifiable fiction: original and enjoyable, worthy of many a thoughtful chuckle, Varamo invites the reader to become an accomplice in the author’s irresistible game.

Was it a nightmare—the result of a bad case of indigestion—or did something truly scary happen after dinner in the Argentine town of Coronel Pringles? One Saturday night a bankrupt bachelor in his sixties and his mother dine with a wealthy friend. They discuss their endlessly connected neighbors. They talk about a mysterious pit that opened up one day, and the old bricklayer who sometimes walked to the cemetery to cheer himself up. Anxious to show off his valuable antiques, the host shows his guests old windup toys and takes them to admire an enormous doll. Back at home, the bachelor decides to watch some late night TV before retiring. The news quickly takes a turn for the worse as, horrified, the newscaster finds herself reporting about the dead rising from their graves, leaving the cemetery, and sucking the blood of the living—all somehow, disturbingly reminiscent of the dinner party.

Emília and Luzia dos Santos, orphaned when they are children, grow up under the protection of their aunt in the hillside village of Taquaritinga, Brazil. Raised as seamstresses, the sisters learn how to cut, how to mend and how to conceal. Emília treasures pretty, girlish things and longs to escape from the confines of the little town. Captivated by the romances she reads in magazines, she dreams of finding love in the bustle and glamour of the city. Luzia, scarred by a childhood accident that has left her with a deformed arm, knows that for her, real life can not be romantically embroidered, and so she finds solace in her sewing and in the secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life. But when Luzia is abducted by a gang of rebel bandits, the sisters' lives diverge in ways they never imagined. Whilst Luzia learns to survive in the unforgiving Brazilian outland, discovering love in the most unexpected of places, Emília meets the son of a wealthy doctor who seems to offer her everything she has always desired. But for the innocent dreamer, the excitement of her escape to the city is soon overshadowed by disillusion and loneliness. As she learns how to navigate the treacherous waters of Brazilian high society, the bandits' campaign against the land-owning 'Colonels' intensifies, and when a price is placed upon Luzia's head Emília realises she must risk everything in order to save her sister.

In the last two decades, the glorification of sewing - whether involving needlework, tailoring, or fashion design - has thrived in Latin American and Iberian cultural works, particularly literature.In the last two decades, the glorification of sewing - whether involving needlework, tailoring, or fashion design - has thrived in Latin American and Iberian cultural works, particularly literature. While fast fashion has relegated the handicraft to maquiladoras in the Global South, Spanish and Latin American authors have created protagonists whose skill with needle and thread allows them to break out of culturally confining roles and spaces. In this fictional realm, seamstresses and tailors enter exciting adventures as spies, peacemakers, or explorers, all facilitated by their artistry and expertise. This book examines the depiction of women and the textile arts in contemporary Hispanic and Brazilian literature. Employing space and gender theories, the book explores how sewing, traditionally viewed as respectable only if practiced at home, gives agency and encourages self-reflection and mobility,allowing protagonists to transgress physical and socially prescribed limits. Texts analyzed include María Dueñas's El tiempo entre costuras (2009), César Aira's La costurera y el viento (1994), Pedro Lemebel's Tengo miedo torero (2001), Frances Ponte de Peebles's The Seamstress (2009), and children's literature. Encouraging readers to look behind garments to the agents of production, the book shows how contemporary authors, through their celebrations of an age-old skill, help to renew interest in sewing, tailoring, upcycling, and embroidery.le only if practiced at home, gives agency and encourages self-reflection and mobility,allowing protagonists to transgress physical and socially prescribed limits. Texts analyzed include María Dueñas's El tiempo entre costuras (2009), César Aira's La costurera y el viento (1994), Pedro Lemebel's Tengo miedo torero (2001), Frances Ponte de Peebles's The Seamstress (2009), and children's literature. Encouraging readers to look behind garments to the agents of production, the book shows how contemporary authors, through their celebrations of an age-old skill, help to renew interest in sewing, tailoring, upcycling, and embroidery.le only if practiced at home, gives agency and encourages self-reflection and mobility,allowing protagonists to transgress physical and socially prescribed limits. Texts analyzed include María Dueñas's El tiempo entre costuras (2009), César Aira's La costurera y el viento (1994), Pedro Lemebel's Tengo miedo torero (2001), Frances Ponte de Peebles's The Seamstress (2009), and children's literature. Encouraging readers to look behind garments to the agents of production, the book shows how contemporary authors, through their celebrations of an age-old skill, help to renew interest in sewing, tailoring, upcycling, and embroidery.le only if practiced at home, gives agency and encourages self-reflection and mobility,allowing protagonists to transgress physical and socially prescribed limits. Texts analyzed include María Dueñas's El tiempo entre costuras (2009), César Aira's La costurera y el viento (1994), Pedro Lemebel's Tengo miedo torero (2001), Frances Ponte de Peebles's The Seamstress (2009), and children's literature. Encouraging readers to look behind garments to the agents of production, the book shows how contemporary authors, through their celebrations of an age-old skill, help to renew interest in sewing, tailoring, upcycling, and embroidery.en's literature. Encouraging readers to look behind garments to the agents of production, the book shows how contemporary authors, through their celebrations of an age-old skill, help to renew interest in sewing, tailoring, upcycling, and embroidery.

A delightful fictional account of the small town Ce´sar Aira grew up in—not so long ago A delightful fictional memoir about César Aira's small hometown. The narrator, born the same year and now living in the same great city (Buenos Aires) as César Aira, could be the author himself. Beginning with his parents—an enigmatic handsome black father who gathered linden flowers for his sleep-inducing tea and an irrational, crippled mother of European descent—the narrator catalogs memories of his childhood: his friends, his peculiar first job, his many gossiping neighbors, and the landscape and architecture of the provinces. The Linden Tree beautifully brings back to life that period in Argentina when the poor, under the guiding hand of Eva Perón, aspired to a newly created middle class. As it moves from anecdote to anecdote, this charming short novella—touching, funny, and sometimes surreal—invites the reader to visit the source of Aira's extraordinary imagination.