In the dramatic conclusion to John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, British intelligence officer Alec Leamas and the idealistic American Communist Liz Gold die as they climb the Wall toward freedom in the West, machine-gunned on the orders of the British agent they had entered East Germany to save. That scene has haunted George Smiley ever since. And guilt over having sent Alec to the East continues to plague him as Control drags him back out of a comfortable retirement with his loving wife, Ann, for “one more job.” A long-unsuspected Communist agent has gone missing in London. Smiley’s assignment now is to find the man. This is his seemingly simple task at the outset of Nick Harkaway’s haunting new John le Carré novel, Karla’s Choice.
A fully credible tale that fleshes out the story of George Smiley
Set in 1963, after the scene at the Wall, Harkaway’s story fits neatly into the 10-year gap between the two best-known novels of his father’s long writing career, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974). And the book does not disappoint. Harkaway proves to be his father’s son, writing with a sure hand in a style that even his always critical family approved. And, like the old man, Harkaway follows a leisurely course toward the violence that will resolve the tale. Thus, unsurprisingly, Smiley’s new assignment soon metastasizes into a large operation involving many of the resources of the Circus (MI6). And it takes Smiley and several of his colleagues to Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, and finally Lisbon on a perilous course back to freedom. Not everyone in Smiley’s circle will survive the experience.
Karla’s Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway (2024) 311 pages ★★★★☆
John le Carré would approve
Harkaway populates his story with characters familiar to any reader of le Carré’s early work. They’re all there. Control. Toby Esterhase. Millie McCraig. Jim Prideaux. Connie Sachs. Alec Leamas. Peter Guillam. The Circus’s double agent in East Berlin, Hans-Dieter Mundt. And, hovering as a menace over them all, the mysterious Russian spymaster, Karla. Harkaway brings them all into focus again with hardly a stumble in Karla’s Choice. And the story slowly meanders through the minds and machinations of its large cast of characters toward its violent conclusion in Budapest. John le Carré would approve, as his family did.
About the author
Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972 as Nicholas Cornwell, the son of author David Cornwell, who famously published under the pen name John le Carré. Harkaway is the author’s own pseudonym. Before turning to building on his father’s well-known franchise, he published seven unrelated novels and one work of nonfiction under his own name and two novels under another pen name, earning modest success. He studied philosophy, sociology, and politics at Clare College, Cambridge. He worked in the film industry before taking up writing full-time.
For related reading
I have reviewed half a dozen of John le Carré’s books, most recently Silverview (A nostalgic look at espionage from John le Carré). I read both The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the two novels that bracket the story Nick Harkaway tells in Karla’s Choice, long before I began reviewing books online.
You’ll find other great reading at:
- The 15 best espionage novels
- Good nonfiction books about espionage
- The best spy novelists writing today
And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.
