In 2006, Rosalie Knecht graduated from Oberlin and flew to Argentina on a Fulbright scholarship to work on a translation of César Aira’s The Seamstress and the Wind, out this week from New Directions. The novel is Knecht's first as a translator, and working on Aira places her in the company of such respected names as Chris Andrews and Katherine Silver.

This is the fifth Aira novel that New Directions has brought out, and last year Barbara Epler, the publishing house's editor in chief, told GQ that after Roberto Bolaño, Aira would be the next big success-in-translation.

It’s hard to argue with that prediction when you know [...]