The Anatomy of a Moment

The Anatomy of a Moment (Spanish: Anatomía de un instante) is a 2009 non-fiction book by Javier Cercas, which won the National Prize for Narrative Writing.

The motives of the three who remained in their seats—Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, the leader of the Communist Party Santiago Carrillo, and the Deputy Prime Minister General Gutiérrez Mellado, 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.

"[1] Rubio-Pueyo argues that Anatomía de un instante may have to be considered as a textual materialisation of the so-called Cultura de la Transición ("Culture of the Transition", CT), or as a literary translation of the régimen del 78 ("Regime of '78").