The journey on the Longino, the Longitudinal Norte train that crossed the pampas carrying hundreds of passengers, some more hopeful than others, during the golden age of saltpeter, lasted four days and four nights. And in this space, which did not even last a week, the train not only became a mobile home for a group of anonymous people, but also a melting pot of hundreds of stories. The journey here is neither to heaven nor to the damnation of hell, but to a middle ground, where great stories grow, where life itself springs forth, a place from which Hernán Rivera Letelier has managed to steal his best stories.