Volume 53, Number 9 · May 25, 2006
Rumors of a Coup
By Christian Caryl
The Successor
by Ismail Kadare, translated from the French of Tedi Papavrami by David Bellos
Arcade, 207 pp., $24.00
OTHER BOOKS BY ISMAIL KADARE DISCUSSED IN THIS ESSAY
Spring Flowers, Spring Frost
translated from the French of Jusuf Vrioni by David Bellos
Arcade, 182 pp., $23.95
The Pyramid
translated from the French of Jusuf Vrioni by David Bellos, in consultation with the author
Arcade, 161 pp., $12.95 (paper)
The Three-Arched Bridge
translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson
Arcade, 184 pp., $12.95 (paper)
The Palace of Dreams
translated from the French of Jusuf Vrioni by Barbara Bray
Arcade, 205 pp., $12.95 (paper)
The Concert
translated from the French of Jusuf Vrioni by Barbara Bray
Arcade, 444 pp., $14.95 (paper)
Elegy for Kosovo
translated from the Albanian by Peter Constantine
Arcade, 121 pp., $17.95
It's lonely in limbo. And that's particularly true, it would seem, if you're a member of the small, exclusive class of those who have suffered the same fate as the namesake of The Successor. Ismail Kadare's novel, his most recent to appear in English, tells the story of the fall of the heir to the throne in the unforgiving Communist dictatorship of late-twentieth-century Albania. We learn the details of the Successor's mysterious death, as it is told from a variety of perspectives, in the first six chapters of the book; in the seventh and last we finally hear from the man himself—or, rather, his ghost, who can be forgiven for seeming a bit confused as he wanders the afterlife. We know that he died at the peak of his power. We know that his death was declared a suicide by the official press, and that other well-informed sources know this version to be untrue. We have even learned, in fragments, a probable version of the actual sequence of events, and the identity of the man who actually pulled the trigger. And yet, even well into the narrative, the 'unfathomable enigma' of why it had to happen this way remains unsolved.
Review, 4371 words
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