From a theoretical-critical perspective, this study intends, first, to dismantle the label that has been attached to El viaje vertical as a "conventional novel", and from this new vision, delve into the modernity/postmodernity dichotomy that divides critics when dealing with Vila-Mata's production, and thus claim a new analytical position: that of between-place or "tightrope walker writing", which endows El viaje vertical with the aesthetic category of trompe l'oe il and "border novel".