The Anatomy of a Moment (spanish:Anatomia de un instante) is a 2009 non-fiction book by Javier Cercas, (English translation, 2011 by Anne McLean). Initially , Cercas writes in the prologue, he had attempted to write a novel about the coup d'état of 23 February 1981. When this proved too awkward, he began to write a non-fiction narrative of the events - events made memorable by the "television images of the braggart moustachioed Lieutenant Colonel Tejero." It is not straight history however, Cercas "enters people's minds and speculates on their motives."[1]
The moment Cercas scrutinises in the book is when Tejero, having stormed into the Spanish parliament, orders the MPs to get down on the floor. His Civil Guards let off a burst of gun-fire. Everyone dives for cover - except for three people. The motives of the three who remained in their seats - Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, Santiago Carillo, leader of the Communist Party, and General Gutierrez Mellado, the Deputy Prime Minister, who advanced on Tejero, - are examined, as are the parts they played as Spain moved from dictatorship to democracy in the 1970s. They are balanced in the narrative by the three figures of the coup - General Milans del Bosch, General Armada and Tejero.
The writer Michael Eaude: " Cercas hangs his enthralling story round the defiance of these three. [-] Suarez becomes the main character in Cercas's book [-] Cercas is a major novelist who has written a fascinating acount of a key event in Spain's recent history."[1]