Signs Preceding the End of the World

Winner of the 2016 Best Translated Book Award for Fiction.

Signs Preceding the End of the World is one of the most arresting novels to be published in Spanish in the last ten years. Yuri Herrera does not simply write about the border between Mexico & the United States & those who cross it. He explores the crossings & translations people make in their minds & 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.

Born in Actopan, Mexico, Yuri Herrera is the author of three novels, including Signs Preceding the End of the World, which was one of the Guardian's “100 Best Books of the 21st Century” & won the Best Translated Book Award. He teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Lisa Dillman teaches in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Emory University & has translated numerous works of fiction by Argentine, Mexican, Catalan, & Spanish writers. She lives in Decatur, Georgia.