Anatomy of a Moment

A landmark work of European literature, Anatomy of a Moment is Javier Cercas’s masterful documentary novel about Spain’s 1981 attempted coup.

In February 1981, as Spain emerged from Franco’s dictatorship and prepared for its first democratic vote for a new prime minister, Colonel Tejero and a band of right-wing soldiers burst into parliament and began firing shots. Only three men refused to take cover: Adolfo Suárez, the outgoing prime minister who had guided Spain out of authoritarianism; General Gutiérrez Mellado, a conservative general loyal to democracy; and Santiago Carrillo, the head of the Communist Party, which had just been legalized. In Anatomy of a Moment, Javier Cercas turns this extraordinary real event – the only coup ever captured live on film – into a groundbreaking documentary novel on a defining moment in Spanish collective memory. Combining the facts of history with the novelist's flair, at once political chronicle and moral inquiry, Javier Cercas, one of Spain's most celebrated writers, deconstructs the tense hours when democracy hung in the balance.