The Great Successor: The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un

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THE GREAT SUCCESSOR is an irreverent yet insightful quest to understand the life of Kim Jong Un, one of the world's most secretive dictators. Kim's life is swathed in myth and propaganda, from the plainly silly--he supposedly ate so much Swiss cheese that his ankles gave way--to the grimly bloody stories of the ways his enemies and rival family members have perished at his command.

One of the most knowledgeable journalists on modern Korea, Anna Fifield has exclusive access to Kim's aunt and uncle who posed as his parents while he was growing up in Switzerland, members of the entourage that accompanied Dennis Rodman on his quasi-ambassadorial visits with Kim, and the Japanese sushi chef whom Kim befriended and who was the first outsider to identify him as the inevitable successor to his father as supreme ruler. She has been able to create a captivating portrait of the oddest and most isolated political regime in the world, one that is broken yet able to summon a US president for peace talks, bankrupt yet in possession of nuclear weapons. Kim Jong Un; ridiculous but deadly, and a man of our times.

Reviews

Anna Fifield owns the North Korea story today in a way that few other journalists, myself included, have ever been able to claim mastery over this most elusive subject - Barbara Demick, author of the bestselling Nothing to Envy

An important and rigorous piece of journalism written with clarity and urgency - Sunday Times

Astonishing and insightful - the inside story of the mercurial man now making headlines, and history. Essential reading - Lyse Doucet

Packed with the fascinating and frequently bizarre anecdotal detail - The Times

By far the most complete insight into the Hermit Kingdom I have ever seen. Full of fascinating details - Christina Lamb

Superb . . . a detailed account of a regime and a personality that are normally shrouded in mystery - Financial Times

Fascinating - Mail on Sunday

Anna Fifield's excellent account, based on years of reporting from Korea, dispenses with the overfamiliar anecdotes about this ghastly spoiled-brat-turned-dictator - Evening Standard

Author Bio

Anna Fifield is the Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post, and was previous the Tokyo bureau chief focusing on Japan and the Koreas. Previously she worked for the Financial Times for 13 years. During her time there, she reported from almost 20 countries, from Iran and Libya to North Korea and Australia. During the 2013-2014 academic year, she was a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard, studying how change happens in closed societies and she is the 2018 Shorenstein Journalism Award recipient for her outstanding reporting on Asia. Her work has appeared in Slate, and she has been a regular commentator on radio and television, including NPR.