Book Review : The Successor

My rating

Book blurb

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.Did he commit suicide or was he murdered? That is the burning question. The man who died by his own hand, or another+s, was Mehmet Shehu, the presumed heir to the ailing dictator, Enver Hoxha. So sure was the world that he was next in line, he was known as The Successor. And then, shortly before he was to assume power, he was found dead.THE SUCCESSOR is simultaneously a mystery novel, an 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 novel (How do you live when nothing is sure?). Vintage Kadare, THE SUCCESSOR seamlessly blends dream and reality, legendary past, and contemporary history.

My thought

The Successor is a murder mystery based on the true-life death of Mehmet Shehu, the designated successor to Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha in 1981. Told using different perspectives from the family of the successor, the guide, the architect, the Dr who performed the autopsy, even, the dead successor from his grave, it is a story where uncertainty rules. But then how could anyone expect murder to be a certainty in an isolated totalitarian society? Was it suicide? Was it a politically motivated assassination? Was it murder for revenge? Anyone of these scenarios could be possible. Only the spirit of the successor at the end of the novel can explain what really happened.

Why does it seem that an oppressive society fosters creativity? The architect in The Successor tackles this question. I could definitely hear Kadare's voice in the architect.

On top of that it was quite confusing and it was hard to remember back to when i read it. But after a while you can get into it and understand it and it was alright.”