This book by the renowned writer José León Sánchez has received awards and recognition from literary critics in Mexico, Spain, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Considered one of the 25 most outstanding works of Costa Rican narrative, the novel is about the life of a man in the gold mines of the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. The main character, a man drawn from himself, portrays in his life the social conflicts of gold mining in the mid-twentieth century. The novel recounts the daily lives of these miners, with their light and dark sides, a drama of life and death. This is one of the best historical novels, sensitive and carefully documented, which at the same time allows us to glimpse the new socio-environmental tensions between extractive mining, sustainability and the social history of labor in cultural hybrids that bring together miners and peasants.