Nick Harkaway on new George Smiley novel and stepping into his dad John le Carré’s world
Author talks about reviving spymaster character George Smiley for Karla’s Choice, and how he got over his terror of writing the thriller
George Smiley, the subtle fictional spymaster navigating treacherous Cold War currents, is back.
Four years after the spy writer’s death at the age of 89, comes a new thriller, Karla’s Choice. Billed as “a John le Carré novel”, it was written by Nick Harkaway, whose qualifications for the job include seven published novels, a lifetime of reading le Carré – and the fact he is the late author’s son.
After decades avoiding his famous father’s shadow, like Smiley trying to leave the intelligence agency known as the Circus, he was drawn back in.
Le Carré left a note asking his family, as custodians of his estate, to help his works live on and find new readers. They took that as permission to write new books. But Harkaway, who made his name with sci-fi thrillers including The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker and Titanium Noir, was apprehensive about being the one to do it.