Signs Preceding the End of the World (8 page)

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Authors: Yuri Herrera

Tags: #Contemporary Fiction, #Literary Fiction, #Novel, #Translation, #Translated fiction, #Rite of passage, #Spanish, #Mexico, #Latin America, #USA, #Rio Grande, #Yuri Herrera, #Juan Rulfo, #Roberto Bolaño, #Jesse Ball, #Italo Calvino, #Kafka, #Kafkaesque, #Makina, #Underworld, #People-smuggling, #trafficking, #Violence, #Illegal Immigrants, #Immigration, #Undocumented workers, #Machismo, #Gender, #Coyote, #Coyotaje, #Discrimination, #Brother, #Borderlands, #Border crossing, #Frontiers, #Jobs in the US, #Trabajos del Reino, #Señales que precederán al fin del mundo, #Signs Preceding the End of the World, #La transmigración de los cuerpos, #The Transmigration of Bodies

BOOK: Signs Preceding the End of the World
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This translation has benefited from the direct and indirect input of many people whom I’d like to thank. It was Katherine Silver who initially sent the opportunity to translate Yuri my way. I also gained from the encouragement, suggestions, edits, discussions, pep talks, emails, readings, and other forms of support of friends, mentors, and editors including Peter Bush, Jean Dangler, Lorna Scott Fox, Daniel Hahn, Henry Reese, Samantha Schnee, and Lawrence Venuti. I would like especially to thank Drew Whitelegg for multiple re-readings, endless discussions and encouragement. And my absolute deepest thanks go to Yuri himself, for answering hundreds of emails (often many per day, sometimes with a dozen questions each) as well as generously discussing in person some of the novel’s many nuances, providing constant encouragement and always being open to exploring new avenues of interpretation.

Lisa Dillman
Decatur, Georgia, USA
February 2014


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