The Seamstress and the Wind by Cesar Aira (New Directions)
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 whats 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 Airas 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.