We are thrilled to announce KARLA’S CHOICE: A JOHN LE CARRÉ NOVEL BY NICK HARKAWAY - the new story into the world of George Smiley's Circus.
It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West's spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy. But Control has other plans.
A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened.
Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy… Set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in the George Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Nick Harkaway's Karla's Choice is an extraordinary, thrilling return to the world of spy fiction's greatest writer, John le Carré.
‘Honestly reads like a lost le Carrè. Smiley is back at the Circus in the safest of hands’
George Smiley returns in this terrific spy saga from John Le Carré’s son, Titanium Noir author Nicholas Cornwell (writing under the Harkaway pseudonym) . . . Longtime Smiley fans will delight in the enormous cast of familiar characters, the thoughtful meditations on the morality of espionage, and the lived-in tradecraft. [In Karla’s Choice,] Harkaway brilliantly channels his late father’s voice, and in the process delivers an essential new chapter for Smiley and Karla.”
‘Karla’s Choice is a note-perfect tribute to le Carré that feels fresh and new, and yet fits seamlessly into the world of Smiley’s Circus in its heyday.’
‘In Karla's Choice, Nick Harkaway has done the impossible and made it look easy. He's written a new George Smiley novel that reads like a long lost le Carré classic. It's a story as gripping as a hand on the throat, a subtle, blood-chilling work of suspense that promises to both enthral the le Carré faithful and captivate a whole new generation of readers. I was floored.’
‘A brilliant and almost uncanny incarnation of le Carré’s voice and world – and an exceptional espionage novel in its own right.’
Tense and atmospheric, meditative and moving. Fans of le Carré will have much to rejoice about’
‘Karla’s Choice is a glorious conjuration of a lost era. It’s a book as rich and complex as its cast of characters. But it’s also a feat of extraordinary literary alchemy. Harkaway has summoned Smiley, his colleagues, antagonists, and the dark moral machinations of their secret Cold War institutions back into existence with all the deft emotional precision of the best of Le Carré, but in so doing he has given us something wondrously new: a giddying, compulsively fierce novel that is very much his own. I read it twice in as many days and am about to pick it up and read it again.’’
‘Every reader of John le Carré will love this brilliant book’
"Elegant as smoke, ruthless as steel, Karla’s Choice is a love letter to fans of Smiley (and who among us isn’t?), but it’s also got LeCarre’s furious humanity and Harkaway’s playful intellect. A genuinely surprising treat."
‘Smiley and his people are back, and thank god for that. Karla's Choice is a beautifully rendered spy story full of familiar characters and authentic Cold War tradecraft. It's the missing chapter of Smiley's battle with Karla that we've always wanted, and Harkaway delivers.’
‘Gripping, clever, and full of tension, Karla’s Choice bridges the gap in the Smiley saga perfectly. Fans of John le Carré will not be disappointed.’
‘It’s thrilling to be back with old friends and enemies. Smiley’s tested, essential goodness sings through the pages. I couldn’t put it down.’
‘The legendary Smiley’s return is a classic thinking person’s espionage thriller packed with more secrets, tricks and deceptions than a roomful of triple agents. We have witnessed the rebirth of an icon,’
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