The Designated Successor was found dead in his bedroom at dawn on December 14.

Did he kill himself or was he murdered?

This question slices through Ismail Kadare's masterful psychological thriller. As the state insists that the future leader died by his own hand, the rest of the world begins to have doubts. Tension builds and rumours escalate, while Kadare draws us into a nightmarish world controlled by rules no one understands, blending dream and reality to produce a mystery and a thriller that seduces and surprises up to the last page.

"Combines all the readability of a crime novel with the innovatory adventurousness of a work created by a writer who never repeats others, much less himself ... The Successor [is] a brilliant autopsy on the corpse of a ghastly regime."
Francis King, Spectator

Translated by David Bellos