The Successor

By Ismail Kadare

A new novel from the acclaimed winner of the inaugural Man Booker International Prize for achievement in fiction.

The Successor is a powerful political novel based on the sudden, mysterious death of the man who had been handpicked to succeed the hated Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.

The man who died was Mehmet Shehu, the presumed heir to the ailing dictator. The world was so certain that he was next in line that he was known as The Successor. And then, shortly before he was to assume power, he was found dead. Did he commit suicide or was he murdered?

The Successor is simultaneously a page-turning mystery, a historical novel – based on actual events and buttressed by the author’s private conversations with the son of the real-life Mehmet Shehu – and a psychological challenge to the reader to decide, How does one live when nothing is sure? The Successor seamlessly blends dream and reality, legendary past, and contemporary history, and proves again that Kadare stands alongside Márquez, Canetti, and Auster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 8, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307374950

Ismail Kadare

Ismail Kadare is Albania’s best known novelist, whose name is mentioned annually in discussions of the Nobel Prize. He won the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005; in 2009 he received the Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras, Spain’s most prestigious literary award, and in 2015 he won the Jerusalem Prize. In 2016 he was named a Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur. James Wood has written of his work, "Kadare is inevitably likened to Orwell and Kundera, but he is a far deeper ironist than the first, and a better storyteller than the second. He is a compellingly ironic storyteller because he so brilliantly summons details that explode with symbolic reality." His last book to be published in English, The Traitor’s Niche, was nominated for the Man Booker International.

Reviews for The Successor

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book Description:A fictionalized political tale based on true-life events and the author's conversations with the victim's son follows the events surrounding the death of Mehmet Shehu, a hand-picked successor to hated ailing Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha who succumbs to an unlikely suicide and sparks a government maelstrom.My Review:This historical and political novel about the death of the successor to dictator, Enver Hoxha, in 1981 Albania read somewhat like an Agatha Christie novel. Was the successor's death a suicide or was it a murder? The author clearly shows the atmosphere that was happening at the time in the Balkans and the conspiracy theories which surrounded the death of the successor. The book leaves you guessing who could have killed the successor until the very end. I would recommend this book to those who are interested in the history of the Balkans and the part that Albania plays in the area in 1981.

[tommcgreevy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Scarily brilliant. A well thought out descent into despair, experienced from the earliest sense of disquiet as a river narrows, through the pell mell of the rapids, to the edge of the waterfall... to the nothingness beyond.

[alexbolding · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Typical treatise dealing with the subtle workings of power and fear in a communist dictatorship like Albania. So why only three stars for this Nobel Prize winner? It is not for want of insight. Because Kadare knows his stuff. It is the style of writing which is a combination of a narrator telling a lengthy story and a southern European style of writing, which I would characterise as terse, wieldy, lacking in immediacy. The idea and plot of this novel is very good. The ordained successor to the ailing dictator is found dead at his palatial home. Was he killed in cold blood? Did he step out of line? Or did he commit suicide (the initial official reading)? And if so why, because rumour has it that he was on the verge of being rehabilitated.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The impact and causes of the murder/suicide of the successor to a totalitarian leader. Didn't really do anything for me, a new author I was very happy to come across.

[vguy_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wandering. Too many characters and settings for a short novella. Least satisfying of Kadare's books that i've read. Intends to put across something of the private suffering of those close to autocratic power, but the image is blurred. Done better in, for example, "Last King of Scotland" or even perhaps "I Claudius"

[bhowell_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the first novel I have read by this author. I realized part way through that I should have read Agamemnon's daughter first. I am reading it now and my copy has a very interesting preface from the translator and the publisher about the writing of this and several other works and the methods used by Kadare to smuggle them out of Albania and in to France, sometimes a few pages at a time. The language and tone of the Successor immediately brought Kafka to mind. It felt like reading The Trial for the first time. There is a certain deadpan aspect of the language but underlying absurdity, irony and actual humour. The story is an interesting one and based on a real historical event in 1981 in Albania, a murder of the 'successor' to the then dictator of the communist regime in power in Albania. The book doesn't solve the mystery and the book is fiction, not history, but it is a fascinating glimpse of life in a totalitarian regime. The event is pondered from many points of view, that of the successor's family, his political rivals, the ordinary population, and foreign intelligence agencies.

[stillbeing · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting tale of murder, intrigue and what happens to the upper echelons in a totalitarian state, but I would have liked more notes to put the story in context. It seems like you'd need a good knowledge of Albania and Albanian history to full appreciate this book.

[ahs7wolfy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a fictionalised account of the events surrounding the death of Mahmet Shehu (the titular character) and how it affected those involved. His place as designated heir to the Albanian leadership under question and with an enquiry paused overnight where final pronouncement is due, the successor is found dead in his home with a gunshot wound to the head. A verdict of suicide is quickly announced and despite this, or perhaps because of the speed and lack of a thorough investigation, rumours appear of it being a murder instead. Potential suspects abound, regardless that the house was all locked up, and even the Guide (Albania's leader) is thought to be involved. Is there any truth to the existence of a secret passage between their adjacent properties? Perhaps a member of the family is guilty with the daughter having to break off her engagement due to political influence.Are there any answers to be had at all? This is the question that drives you on to the end as we hear the thoughts of the protagonists and see how subsequent events affect their own lives. Less about the geographical aspect of Albanian life we do learn of the political adherence to the Communist rule of the time as well as the fear of denunciation of the people, especially those closest to the seat of power. Note: This book was translated into English from the French which itself was translated from the original.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting novel based on the suicide/murder of the Albanian no 2 leader Mehmet Shehu (the Successor) in 1981, almost certainly at the instigation of the dictator Enver Hoxha (the Guide). It conveys the atmosphere of paranoia and political machination in the unltra-Stalinist state very well, though I thought it lost its way a bit in the middle in the long chapter about the Successor's daughter's love life.

[richard_carpenter_33 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like the other reviewers I found this gripping and fascinating, with multiple layers of meaning. I don't think, however, that readers need to know much about its relation to actual historical events - like Kafka and the Greek myths which Kadare refers to, the story is timeless, so don't be put off if like me you are not au fait with recent Albanian history.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Designated Successor was found dead in his bedroom at dawn on December 14. From this starting point, Kadare moves both backwards and forwards in time, looking dispassionately at the event from multiple perspectives, including that of the Successor's family, the Guide (Albania's aging, blind dictator), the new heir apparent, the architect in charge of the recent renovations of the Successor's house, and various unnamed foreign intelligence agencies. Did the Successor commit suicide, or was he murdered? If he was murdered, who killed him, and who will be blamed? (These are not necessarily the same person.) Is it possible to discover the true facts about the death? What are the implications for the future? It's a fascinating psychological study of Albanian politics in the Cold War era, perhaps best summed up by the anonymous intelligence agency analysts: The only way you can get a grip on a place overcome by paranoia is by becoming a little paranoid yourself.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel looks at the murder? assassination? of the Successor--the second in power--in Albania, during the communist years. Few names are named. There is his wife, his daughter, her fiance, the Guide, the Architect, and so forth. Based on the death of Mehmet Shehu in 1981.This was interesting, but slow and a bit dull.

[jonfaith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was the announced pasing of Kim Jong Il that prompted my reading, a belated one of sorts as I've always found a welcome tumult in Kadare's novels. The jutapoisiton with North Korea is functional in as I know so little about its shadowed pratices. Perhaps that is the point. This is a remarkable tale, one which seethes and whsipers leaving the reader shuddering at political reality and swooning in the wake of such sweet prose.

[ggarfield_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating story about an Albanian Dictator (the Guide) and his Successor’s controversial death. The story has been summarized already in numerous reviews so I’ll refrain from that. What is interesting is to see how well the author has captured the omnipresence of a totalitarian regime’s oppression and the lingering threat of “relegation” for those who fail to follow “the Doctrine” of the Party. It is mind control, the rationalization of illogical ideas and/or motives and the destruction of the human being. It is analogous to the fanatical or misguided wing of a religion or corporation or group of people. An illuminating book worth consideration.While I liked the book, I found it did not thoroughly engage me. Perhaps that is the result of it having been translated into English, through French from Albanian. Did the words capture the intention of the author or were they the technical language of the translator?

[leonard_seet_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A whodunit about the death of the successor to Albania’s ruler. But also a political novel about the madness of a dictatorship. Fear, envy, suspicion, and whim disguise as loyalty to motivate political intrigues. And politics, whether in governments, corporations, churches, or families, don similar costumes.