This volume includes two short novels, the first of which, The South, gave rise to the script for the film of the same name directed by Víctor Erice. Both this story and the one told in Bene are characterized by their narrative magnetism, based on Adelaida García Morales' special ability to surround certain male characters with an aura of mystery, around whose absence each of the narratives is woven. A physical absence but a shadowy presence, longed for in one case, ominous in the other, whose weight is felt doubly because of its very ghostly reality.