Description

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 Suarez, the outgoing prime minister who had guided Spain out of authoritarianism; General Gutierrez 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, this landmark work by one of Europe’s most celebrated writers deconstructs the tense hours when democracy hung in the balance.

Publisher Review

‘A brilliant reconfiguring of a key event in contemporary European history. Audacious and wholly fascinating.’

– William Boyd ‘Cercas writes that he originally tried to fictionalize the event and turn it into ‘a strange experimental version of The Three Musketeers; that’s exactly how the book turned out, and he didn’t have to fictionalize a thing.’

– New Yorker ‘A persuasive, brilliant and absorbing book that has more contemporary resonance than even he might have imagined.’

– The Economist ‘Always a nimble dancer on the edge of history and fiction, the Spanish writer returns with a closely researched but always dramatic account of the failed coup in 1981 that almost vanquished his country’s fragile post-Franco democracy.’

– Boyd Tonkin, Independent ‘Javier Cercas returns to another crucial episode in the history of his country in this dense but gripping, almost Shakespearean account of soldiers, politicians, mixed motives and the lust for power…. His subtle intelligence, narrative gifts and intellectual honesty are outstanding.’

– Anne Chisholm, Telegraph