Wind by Claude Simon The Wind centers on Antoine Montes, a wayfarer of 35 who materializes in a small French town in the Pyrenees to claim a vineyard that is his inheritance. A scarecrow of a man, he takes up residence in a fleabag pension and becomes enmeshed in a lawsuit, and later, in a hopeless relationship with a hotel waitress. The title of the book refers to the dry, pervasive Mistrals, "rustling against the walls like a thief, like time itself passing, irremediably flowing." In this powerful work, Montes is caught up in currents as grimly haphazard as the Mistral that blows through the dusty hamlet and the whirlwind of passions set into motion by his arrival. CL, ISBN: 0807611573 $16.95 (Can: $25.50)