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The Transmigration of Bodies and Signs Preceding the End of the World
Two astonishing novellas, by ‘Mexico’s greatest novelist’, in one volume.
Hilarious and horrifying, Yuri Herrera’s The Transmigration of Bodies is a gritty, feverish novella, written in dazzling prose that is both bawdy and poetic. A plague has brought death to the city. Two feuding crime families with blood on their hands need our hard-boiled hero, The Redeemer, to broker peace. Both his instincts and the vacant streets warn him to stay indoors, but The Redeemer ventures out into the city’s underbelly to arrange for the exchange of the bodies they hold hostage. Lust and crime and a lack of condoms all feature in this brilliant novella about living in a city filled with the dead, and where no one can distinguish between the guilty and the innocent.
A response to the violence of contemporary Mexico, with echoes of Romeo and Juliet, Roberto Bolaño and Raymond Chandler, The Transmigration of Bodies is a noir tragedy and a tribute to those bodies—loved, sanctified and defiled—that violent crime has touched.
Signs Preceding the End of the World is a masterpiece, haunting and arresting, spare and poetic, a condensed epic about immigration. Yuri Herrera does not simply write about the border between Mexico and the United States and those who cross it. He explores the crossings and translations people make in their minds and language as they move from one country to another, especially when there’s no going back.
Traversing this lonely territory is Makina, a young woman who knows only too well how to survive in a violent, macho world. Leaving behind her life in Mexico to search for her brother, she is smuggled into the USA carrying a pair of secret messages—one from her mother and one from the Mexican underworld.
Yuri Herrera was born in Actopan, Mexico, in 1970. He studied politics in Mexico, creative writing in El Paso and took his PhD in literature at Berkeley. His first novel to appear in English, Signs Preceding the End of the World, was published to critical acclaim in 2015 and included in many Best-of-Year lists. He is currently teaching at the University of Tulane, in New Orleans.
112 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 28, 2016
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557 people want to read
About the author
Yuri Herrera
29 books640 followersBorn in Actopan, Mexico, in 1970, Yuri Herrera studied Politics in Mexico, Creative Writing in El Paso and took his PhD in literature at Berkeley. His first novel to appear in English, Signs Preceding the End of the World, was published to great critical acclaim in 2015 and included in many Best-of-Year lists, including The Guardian‘s Best Fiction and NBC News’s Ten Great Latino Books, going on to win the 2016 Best Translated Book Award. He is currently teaching at the Tulane University, in New Orleans.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 27, 2016
4.5 stars
Text Publishing has created a volume containing two of Yuri Herrera’s most lauded novellas: The Transmigration of Bodies and Signs Preceding the End of the World.
“He was hungry as hell. And thirsty. But all there was was rankystank water in a few puddles on the path and those dense gray clouds that refused to squeeze out a drop. A synthetic insanity to the weather, the city, the people, all sulking, all plotting who-knows-what”
The Transmigration of Bodies is a novella by award-winning Mexican author, Yuri Herrera. A plague has laid waste the city, the streets are empty, and the Redeemer is wary about leaving his apartment. His neighbours, too, are conspicuous by their absence. But he gets a call: his unique skills needed to negotiate an exchange, to maintain the fragile peace.
Herrera’s novella captures the feel of the post-epidemic world with consummate ease: the paranoia and desperation are almost palpable. Against this background, themes of a family feud, revenge, respect, lust, love and grabbing glimpses of beauty feature. Amidst the violence and drama, there are doses of black humour, in the names, especially. Few people have regular names: many are distinguished by an apt descriptor like Three Times Blonde, Neeyanderthal, The Dolphin, Baby Girl, Little slick, and The Mennonite.
Herrera does not use quotation marks for speech, but for the most part, the context is clear enough to avoid confusion. One result of reading a work in translation is that when a particular word appears misspelled in the text (“though” is spelled “tho” throughout this novella), a reader may wonder if this is due to overzealous use of the “find and replace” function, or a particular quirk of the author’s, most likely the latter.
This powerful novella from an award-winning author is flawlessly translated by Lisa Dillman.
Signs Preceding the End of the World is the first novella by award-winning Mexican author, Yuri Herrera, to be translated into English. Because of her telephone, Makina is an integral part of communications in The Little Town. “Sometimes, more and more these days, they called from the North: these were the ones who’d often already forgotten the local lingo, so she responded to them in their own new tongue. Makina spoke all three, and knew how to keep quiet in all three, too”. Her mother Cora has reluctantly sent her to cross the river (the border) to take a message to her brother.
Her mother’s influence goes only so far. Mr Double U will facilitate her crossing, but when Makina goes to Mr Aitch for help: “Mr Aitch smiled, with all the artlessness of a snake disguised as a man coiling around your legs…..Here came the hustle. Mr. Aitch was the type who couldn’t see a mule without wanting a ride”. She is to carry a parcel for him.
Nine short but powerful chapters deal with Makina’s crossing, her delivery of the parcel and her search for her brother. In view of the latest US election results, this is an extremely topical story. This volume also features a note from the translator, Lisa Dillman, which is interesting as it explores the challenges in conveying intended meaning when translating.
Text Publishing has created a volume containing two of Yuri Herrera’s most lauded novellas: The Transmigration of Bodies and Signs Preceding the End of the World.
“He was hungry as hell. And thirsty. But all there was was rankystank water in a few puddles on the path and those dense gray clouds that refused to squeeze out a drop. A synthetic insanity to the weather, the city, the people, all sulking, all plotting who-knows-what”
The Transmigration of Bodies is a novella by award-winning Mexican author, Yuri Herrera. A plague has laid waste the city, the streets are empty, and the Redeemer is wary about leaving his apartment. His neighbours, too, are conspicuous by their absence. But he gets a call: his unique skills needed to negotiate an exchange, to maintain the fragile peace.
Herrera’s novella captures the feel of the post-epidemic world with consummate ease: the paranoia and desperation are almost palpable. Against this background, themes of a family feud, revenge, respect, lust, love and grabbing glimpses of beauty feature. Amidst the violence and drama, there are doses of black humour, in the names, especially. Few people have regular names: many are distinguished by an apt descriptor like Three Times Blonde, Neeyanderthal, The Dolphin, Baby Girl, Little slick, and The Mennonite.
Herrera does not use quotation marks for speech, but for the most part, the context is clear enough to avoid confusion. One result of reading a work in translation is that when a particular word appears misspelled in the text (“though” is spelled “tho” throughout this novella), a reader may wonder if this is due to overzealous use of the “find and replace” function, or a particular quirk of the author’s, most likely the latter.
This powerful novella from an award-winning author is flawlessly translated by Lisa Dillman.
Signs Preceding the End of the World is the first novella by award-winning Mexican author, Yuri Herrera, to be translated into English. Because of her telephone, Makina is an integral part of communications in The Little Town. “Sometimes, more and more these days, they called from the North: these were the ones who’d often already forgotten the local lingo, so she responded to them in their own new tongue. Makina spoke all three, and knew how to keep quiet in all three, too”. Her mother Cora has reluctantly sent her to cross the river (the border) to take a message to her brother.
Her mother’s influence goes only so far. Mr Double U will facilitate her crossing, but when Makina goes to Mr Aitch for help: “Mr Aitch smiled, with all the artlessness of a snake disguised as a man coiling around your legs…..Here came the hustle. Mr. Aitch was the type who couldn’t see a mule without wanting a ride”. She is to carry a parcel for him.
Nine short but powerful chapters deal with Makina’s crossing, her delivery of the parcel and her search for her brother. In view of the latest US election results, this is an extremely topical story. This volume also features a note from the translator, Lisa Dillman, which is interesting as it explores the challenges in conveying intended meaning when translating.
September 26, 2017
Disemboweling. An unabashed and gritty contemporary account of the realities of the violence dominating the streets of Mexico. Feuding families, reminicent of the Capulets and monagues leave a path of teenage death and destruction. Only the aptly named Redeemer, accompanied by the Neeyanderthal and the Mennonite can attempt to ameliorate the situation via the dangerous and macabre exchange of bodies.
I needed to remind myself to breath between paragraphs. A masterfully suspenseful and horrifying read that snaps the synapses into contemplation about the inhumanity of inhumanity.
I needed to remind myself to breath between paragraphs. A masterfully suspenseful and horrifying read that snaps the synapses into contemplation about the inhumanity of inhumanity.
Read
February 9, 2018‘A slim and potent novel about an unnamed city emptied out by plague, and one character’s desperate scramble to unite two warring clans (think Baz Luhrmann’s film Romeo and Juliet, but set in the landscape of Children of Men and written in the jagged-glass prose of James Cain).’
New York Times Book Review
New York Times Book Review
July 17, 2020
Visceral. Fabulous writing. Refreshingly unique.
June 12, 2017
The writing alone might make these two novellas a masterpiece. Just the way Herrera is able work his sentences into these twisty contortions that should defy grammar and physics. It's the kind of writing that can create colours, and this these novellas are filled with colour.
October 1, 2017
Read for book club. Also read for Advanced Pop Sugar challenge 'A book from a genre/ sub genre you've never heard of'.
October 28, 2019
Okay, so it's two novellas rather than a single novel, which complicates my score somewhat.
I would rate the second novella Signs Preceding the End of the World, as somewhere between a four and five. I enjoyed the style and rhythm of the text, and found it reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's work, both in subject and tone. Stylistically, I liked the experimental inflections and attitude. It worked well with the story that it was trying to tell, and I feel contributes to the overall success of the piece. I appreciated the translator's notes at the end, which helped explain some of her decisions in bringing the (seemingly) 'unique' approach to language that Herrera takes in his work.
Which leads me back to the first novella, The Transmigration of Bodies. I quite liked the story, but all the way through found some of the sentence structures and translation choices jarring and ill-chosen. Some of this was explained upon reading the notes at the end of the texts, and while it makes me believe that some of this was necessary due to the highly experimental approach to word choice and language in the original text, I can't avoid the fact that it just didn't work for me.
All in all, I'd recommend reading both, and as an exercise in understanding the challenges to translating literary fiction into English, it's very much a 'value-add' proposition.
I would rate the second novella Signs Preceding the End of the World, as somewhere between a four and five. I enjoyed the style and rhythm of the text, and found it reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's work, both in subject and tone. Stylistically, I liked the experimental inflections and attitude. It worked well with the story that it was trying to tell, and I feel contributes to the overall success of the piece. I appreciated the translator's notes at the end, which helped explain some of her decisions in bringing the (seemingly) 'unique' approach to language that Herrera takes in his work.
Which leads me back to the first novella, The Transmigration of Bodies. I quite liked the story, but all the way through found some of the sentence structures and translation choices jarring and ill-chosen. Some of this was explained upon reading the notes at the end of the texts, and while it makes me believe that some of this was necessary due to the highly experimental approach to word choice and language in the original text, I can't avoid the fact that it just didn't work for me.
All in all, I'd recommend reading both, and as an exercise in understanding the challenges to translating literary fiction into English, it's very much a 'value-add' proposition.
April 27, 2024
I came across this book by accident in the local library it had been miss-shelved next to some Adam Nevill books, so thank you random person out there, otherwise I may never of had the chance to read this.
4.5 stars!
Definitely my favourite read for the year so far. This was refreshing, as I have been in a bit of a reading slump and have found myself forcefully and slowly trudging through some contemporary fiction lately. I punish myself with the ol' finish what you started mantra, even if it's weeks to months worth of small sequestered instances of suffering. With that said, It should also be noted that sometimes I also ration out good books piecemeal, because I want to put off the dreaded 'Void of Emptiness' after finishing them. I loved these two novels and found myself needing to devour them rapidly.
'The Transmigration of Bodies' tells of an unknown contagion ravaging a town (potentially the world?) and two feuding gangster families (A very Romeo and Juliet type dynamic) each holding in their possession, a corpse belonging to the other. And our 'Anti-hero' The Redeemer is the middle man who must uncover the events that led to their deaths and see that each body is safely returned to its respective family.
There is a strange silence throughout the book with many un-peopled streets. Thanks to the pandemic (sound familiar?)
“There was no one, nothing, not a single voice, not one sound on an avenue that by that time should have been rammed with cars."
There are curfews and roadblocks. Some people lock themselves away in their homes, while others hole up in strip clubs or drinking holes awaiting the last days.
“He could sense the agitation from behind their closed doors but sensed no urgent need to get out. It was terrifying how readily everyone had accepted enclosure,' is Herrera a seer? (Their is also a rather comic scene with a stripper titillating punters with a mask removal)
Lisa Dillman's translations of Yuri Herrera's work must have been such a mammoth task and I am saddened that I cannot read Spanish in order to truly appreciate her efforts not experience the narratives in their natural state. The 'Carollian' like shape of Makina's journey with numerous nods to the underworld mythology of Aztec and Greek origins is conveyed so brilliantly with her assistance in 'Signs Preceding the End of the World.' (I think this was my favourite of the two novels.)
I love the punchiness and pace of both the syntax and punctuation, it builds the suspense, adds an atmosphere of urgency in each story and gives off a rawness that combines the blunt matter-of-factness of characters and the dark surrealism that sometimes leaps off the page.
"I’m dead, Makina said to herself when everything lurched: a man with a cane was crossing the street, a dull groan suddenly surged through the asphalt, the man stood still as if waiting for someone to repeat the question and then the earth opened up beneath his feet: it swallowed the man, and with him a car and a dog, all the oxygen around and even the screams of passers-by. I’m dead, Makina said to herself, and hardly had she said it than her whole body began to contest the verdict and she flailed her feet frantically backward, each step mere inches from the sinkhole, until the precipice settled into a perfect circle and Makina was saved.
Slippery bitch of a city, she said to herself. Always about to sink back into the cellar."
I particularly loved reading Dillman's notes at the end explaining the reasoning behind her decision to translate ‘jarchar’ as ‘to verse.' Definitely go check that out in the end notes.
I'm buying a copy for myself and looking out for more of Yuri Herrera's work.
4.5 stars!
Definitely my favourite read for the year so far. This was refreshing, as I have been in a bit of a reading slump and have found myself forcefully and slowly trudging through some contemporary fiction lately. I punish myself with the ol' finish what you started mantra, even if it's weeks to months worth of small sequestered instances of suffering. With that said, It should also be noted that sometimes I also ration out good books piecemeal, because I want to put off the dreaded 'Void of Emptiness' after finishing them. I loved these two novels and found myself needing to devour them rapidly.
'The Transmigration of Bodies' tells of an unknown contagion ravaging a town (potentially the world?) and two feuding gangster families (A very Romeo and Juliet type dynamic) each holding in their possession, a corpse belonging to the other. And our 'Anti-hero' The Redeemer is the middle man who must uncover the events that led to their deaths and see that each body is safely returned to its respective family.
There is a strange silence throughout the book with many un-peopled streets. Thanks to the pandemic (sound familiar?)
“There was no one, nothing, not a single voice, not one sound on an avenue that by that time should have been rammed with cars."
There are curfews and roadblocks. Some people lock themselves away in their homes, while others hole up in strip clubs or drinking holes awaiting the last days.
“He could sense the agitation from behind their closed doors but sensed no urgent need to get out. It was terrifying how readily everyone had accepted enclosure,' is Herrera a seer? (Their is also a rather comic scene with a stripper titillating punters with a mask removal)
Lisa Dillman's translations of Yuri Herrera's work must have been such a mammoth task and I am saddened that I cannot read Spanish in order to truly appreciate her efforts not experience the narratives in their natural state. The 'Carollian' like shape of Makina's journey with numerous nods to the underworld mythology of Aztec and Greek origins is conveyed so brilliantly with her assistance in 'Signs Preceding the End of the World.' (I think this was my favourite of the two novels.)
I love the punchiness and pace of both the syntax and punctuation, it builds the suspense, adds an atmosphere of urgency in each story and gives off a rawness that combines the blunt matter-of-factness of characters and the dark surrealism that sometimes leaps off the page.
"I’m dead, Makina said to herself when everything lurched: a man with a cane was crossing the street, a dull groan suddenly surged through the asphalt, the man stood still as if waiting for someone to repeat the question and then the earth opened up beneath his feet: it swallowed the man, and with him a car and a dog, all the oxygen around and even the screams of passers-by. I’m dead, Makina said to herself, and hardly had she said it than her whole body began to contest the verdict and she flailed her feet frantically backward, each step mere inches from the sinkhole, until the precipice settled into a perfect circle and Makina was saved.
Slippery bitch of a city, she said to herself. Always about to sink back into the cellar."
I particularly loved reading Dillman's notes at the end explaining the reasoning behind her decision to translate ‘jarchar’ as ‘to verse.' Definitely go check that out in the end notes.
I'm buying a copy for myself and looking out for more of Yuri Herrera's work.
May 22, 2017
One reviewer described this (very short but intense) book as comic. Not a word I would use - intense, surprising, manic, mad (as in the insane sense.) Making sense of the madness and crime in much of Mexico is difficult and this novel does a good job of exploring human/family relationships when the potential for death and loss is so present. And, I guess it is sort of comic after all. (Especially the hunt for condoms.)
March 31, 2018
This was two stories in one. It was probably a 3.5 for me.
The synopsis offered in the book description is pretty accurate. The book description does describe the first story as ‘hilarious. I didn’t find it to be funny though.
I found the lack of quotation marks when a person is speaking off-putting.
The synopsis offered in the book description is pretty accurate. The book description does describe the first story as ‘hilarious. I didn’t find it to be funny though.
I found the lack of quotation marks when a person is speaking off-putting.
January 16, 2022
Very fun and interesting, esp. to read in CdMX and NOLA.
October 10, 2021
"Every time she came to the Big Chilango she trod softly because that was not the place she wanted to leave her mark, and she told herself repeatedly that she couldn’t get lost, and by get lost she meant not a detour or a sidetrack but lost for real, lost forever in the hills of hills cementing the horizon; or lost in the awe of all the living flesh that had built and paid for palaces. "
The highly stylised, well, style of these novellas is not my thing really, but even my begrudging heart could appreciate how stunning some of the prose is here, especially in the second entry Signs Preceding the End of the World. This meditation on the borderlands, and the act of leaving, is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, but all shrouded in a portentous (and occasionally pretentious) surrealism, which doesn't stop it being just funny and sharp at times:
"They play, said the old man. Every week the anglos play a game to celebrate who they are. He stopped, raised his cane and fanned the air. One of them whacks it, then sets off like it was a trip around the world, to every one of the bases out there, you know the anglos have bases all over the world, right? Well the one who whacked it runs from one to the next while the others keep taking swings to distract their enemies, and if he doesn’t get caught he makes it home and his people welcome him with open arms and cheering."
Transmigration of Bodies has a sharper, machismo noir edge that I started out actively disliking before again, acknowledging that the storytelling was just so well done I was enjoying myself despite myself. Set in a plague-ridden city, this feels less metaphorical in the COVID era than it was intended to be. A homily to violence and the ways people cope with it, and the importance of what we owe the dead, I was glad to finish just as I was glad to have read it.
The highly stylised, well, style of these novellas is not my thing really, but even my begrudging heart could appreciate how stunning some of the prose is here, especially in the second entry Signs Preceding the End of the World. This meditation on the borderlands, and the act of leaving, is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, but all shrouded in a portentous (and occasionally pretentious) surrealism, which doesn't stop it being just funny and sharp at times:
"They play, said the old man. Every week the anglos play a game to celebrate who they are. He stopped, raised his cane and fanned the air. One of them whacks it, then sets off like it was a trip around the world, to every one of the bases out there, you know the anglos have bases all over the world, right? Well the one who whacked it runs from one to the next while the others keep taking swings to distract their enemies, and if he doesn’t get caught he makes it home and his people welcome him with open arms and cheering."
Transmigration of Bodies has a sharper, machismo noir edge that I started out actively disliking before again, acknowledging that the storytelling was just so well done I was enjoying myself despite myself. Set in a plague-ridden city, this feels less metaphorical in the COVID era than it was intended to be. A homily to violence and the ways people cope with it, and the importance of what we owe the dead, I was glad to finish just as I was glad to have read it.
March 18, 2017
The Transmigration of Bodies is about conscience and morality in a corrupt world. It barrels forward with a drunken momentum, and leaves you feeling as if you've glimpsed an essential truth.
Signs Preceding the End of the World is a mythic depiction of border crossing. It begs a re-read once you've finished (not a big ask, considering it's brevity) - especially after reading the end notes from translator Lisa Dillman, which expand aspects of the language in an incredible way.
Signs Preceding the End of the World is a mythic depiction of border crossing. It begs a re-read once you've finished (not a big ask, considering it's brevity) - especially after reading the end notes from translator Lisa Dillman, which expand aspects of the language in an incredible way.
March 9, 2017
Terribly, frightfully real
January 29, 2017
Beautifully lyrical. The translation retains the essence of the language, the otherness.
November 19, 2020
I read Signs for a uni course and it was good, but ultimately forgettable.
But holy cow is Transmigration prescient.
A mob fixer arranges an exchange of bodies. But during all of this there is a pandemic going on. Shops closed, people staying home, and wearing masks. This is my favourite but. Seems very 2020:
“I see you made use of those facemasks, the Redeemer said. One girl was dancing before a cluster of liquored up fools, naked but for the mask over her mouth, each time she leaned close she made as if to take it off, and the boozers whooped in titillation.”
But holy cow is Transmigration prescient.
A mob fixer arranges an exchange of bodies. But during all of this there is a pandemic going on. Shops closed, people staying home, and wearing masks. This is my favourite but. Seems very 2020:
“I see you made use of those facemasks, the Redeemer said. One girl was dancing before a cluster of liquored up fools, naked but for the mask over her mouth, each time she leaned close she made as if to take it off, and the boozers whooped in titillation.”
January 7, 2017
Death and violence is all too pervasive in Mexico and these two short dense novella's envelope the sense of violence and death that makes up everyday life. It was the second reading of "Signs Preceding the End of the World" and I think that it greatly enhanced my comprehension of the story, I will re read "The Transmigration of Bodies" from that premise!
April 20, 2017
A bawdy, funny, and touching glance at classism and race relations in a post-apocalyptic society.
April 26, 2017
I enjoyed both of these stories. Neither of them are light but both are enjoyable. Really enjoyed the style in which they were written.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews