The Successor
Ismail Kadare, , trans. from the French of Tedi Papavrami by David Bellos. . Arcade, $24 (207pp) ISBN 978-1-55970-773-2
In 1981, on a December night, the designated successor to Albania's tyrannical "Guide" died of a gunshot wound; the Albanian news reported it as a suicide, but rumors spoke of murder. The search for the story of that night spirals inward from the speculations of foreign intelligence analysts to the posthumous and fragmentary recollections of the successor himself. Through those, we see his daughter twice forced to abandon love that conflicted with her father's ambitions, and his son clapped in irons when doctrine required it. As Kadare explores the perspectives of those caught in the successor's orbit, past and present, it becomes apparent that he is investigating not only the fate of a man, but the nature of truth when the symbol one becomes outweighs the human one is. Kadare (
Reviewed on: 09/19/2005
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 224 pages - 978-0-385-66218-5
Other - 978-0-307-37495-0
Paperback - 207 pages - 978-1-55970-847-0
Paperback - 224 pages - 978-0-385-66219-2
Paperback - 217 pages - 978-1-61145-278-5