Based on the construction of a dialogue between the Colombian writer Hector Abad Faciolince’s book Traiciones de la memoria and the standpoints of certain theoreticians of world historiography, the article explores the methodological and conceptual contributions of this study for the craft of the historian. Despite having been created as a literary work, with no historical pretensions, Abad Faciolince’s text presents important suggestions and points of encounter with the ways of conceiving the historical mission of the new cultural history.