The Great Successor

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 -- Richard Lloyd Parry * 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 * 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 bestseller * Nothing to Envy * Excellent . . . an illuminating insight into the life and thinking of North Korea's ruthless leader * Evening Standard, Book of the Week * Elegantly written and exhaustively researched * Guardian * superb...a model of investigative diligence and rigour * New Statesman * Those anticipating James Bond villain stories will not be disappointed * Spectator * The Great Successor brims with important and exclusive information about the Kim family -- Andrei Lankov * Financial Times * an authoritative, revealing and spry account of the world's most isolated political regime * Sunday Business Post * A hard-earned, comprehensive portrait . . . essential reading * Irish Independent * Fascinating * Hot Press * Anna Fifield disentangles the propaganda that surrounds Kim and presents a clear-eyed portrait of a secretive dictator. * The Sunday Business Post *

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.