The Transmigration of Bodies (Spanish: La transmigración de los cuerpos[1]) is a post-apocalyptic noir fiction novel by Mexican author Yuri Herrera.

[2] The book focuses on an underworld fixer who tries to arrange a peaceful exchange of bodies between two rival criminal gangs in a corrupt city that is in the midst of an epidemic.

A plague, spread by insects and bodily fluids, is ravaging the city, which has resulted in empty streets as most citizens isolate themselves from the epidemic in their houses.

Many public services like running water are non-operational, and the lack of citizens on the streets has led to increased petty crime.

Some Mexican idioms and grammatical forms are translated literally, a technique that retains a feel for the original Spanish language.

The Los Angeles Times' Dustin Illingworth has stated that the feuding families of the Castros and Fonsecas are similar to the Capulets and Montagues.

[8] The complicating factor in The Transmigration of Bodies comes from the plague-ridden setting, because not only do the families have a longstanding grudge, but the entire city has been thrown into an atmosphere of deeper mistrust by the epidemic.

[8][9] According to Aaron Bady of the Boston Review, it is the Redeemer's role to bring the aggrieved parties together in weeping for their lost children and not violence; or, as Friar Laurence says in Romeo and Juliet, to "with their death bury their parents’ strife.

This reinforces the ideas of violence and Herrera has stated that this scene and the reaction of citizens to the plague is inspired by the 2009 swine flu pandemic in Mexico City.

[5] Rien Fertel of Kenyon Review mentions that this breakdown of society occurs only four days after the plague has hit the city, leading to mistrust among the population.

[6] The Los Angeles Times complimented Herrera's writing style, but expressed criticism for the "occasional sense of flatness" that did not fit with the violent depictions and themes.

Signs Preceding the End of the World (Señales que precederán al fin del mundo[1]) was published first in the United States in 2015, but was actually the third to be written.