Picture the scene: the investiture of a new prime minister is interrupted when a uniformed man enters parliament brandishing a pistol, shouting "Everyone down on the floor!" MPs dive for cover, then the militia rush in and the lower house is filled with the sound of gunfire. It happened in Spain in 1981, and the more Cercas thought about this failed coup d'état the more fascinated he became with the actions of Adolfo Suárez, the soon-to-be ex-prime minister: when everyone else hit the floor he simply leant back in his chair, the last man sitting. Was it courage or fatalism? At first Cercas, the author of the acclaimed Soldiers of Salamis, wanted to write a novel about the coup, but he chose instead to give it this unhurried, thoughtful analysis in which he teases out every complexity of the event as if it were a philosophical conundrum. The result is a powerful account of Spain's difficult transition from dictatorship to democracy, as the Francoists behind the coup try to turn back the clock.