Karla's choice

George Smiley

by Nick Harkaway

After the passing of a legendary author who transformed spy fiction, his son takes up the mantle in an “essential new chapter” (Publishers Weekly) anticipated by half a dozen publications! A Soviet agent has defected, and his target has vanished… plunging a retired George Smiley back into the world he left behind.

“Promises to both enthrall the le Carré faithful and captivate a whole new generation of readers. I was floored” (Joe Hill).

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Thriller, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Spy Thriller

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 2024

About the author

Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall, UK in 1972. He is possessed of two explosively exciting eyebrows, which exert an almost hypnotic attraction over small children, dogs, and - thankfully - one ludicrously attractive human rights lawyer, to whom he is married.

He likes: oceans, mountains, lakes, valleys, and those little pigs made of marzipan they have in Switzerland at new year.

He does not like: bivalves. You just can't trust them.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

'I asked you to show me the Smiley way and you showed me. Offered Karla the chance to call it all off.'

I think individual readers' verdict on this continuation of John Le Carré's Smiley series will depend on how you perceive the original books and, therefore, what expectations you carry forward.

If you want an espionage thriller set during the Cold War, then this delivers. It may be both a little slow and, simultaneously, have Smiley taking too much of an active role in comparison with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, the book to which this is a sequel and to which it looks back frequently. There are things happening which wouldn't, I think, have taken place in the original JlC books:a young woman who works in publisher admin demands to be taken to Control and gets escorted straight to his office; she then goes into the field behind the Iron Curtain with Smiley and Guillam with no training, before going rogue and taking herself off to Hungary; there's a car chase with Smiley at the wheel. There's even a scene where restrained, fastidious Smiley, buys a present for Ann, gets it wrapped with an over-egging of grotesque ribbons and walks off with it proudly under his arm: a travesty of characterisation.

There's some cute tradecraft 'technology' with cellophane, and a 2024 insertion of a swathe of women - conspicuously absent, generally, from the originals apart from Connie Sachs and assorted wives, mothers and daughters as the plots require. There are also some risible similes, in contravention to the original cool, clean writing: 'he looked as disgraceful and salty as Aphrodite coming up out of the sea in the main room of the state museum' and 'they scuttled around him like good Christmas churchgoers around a tramp'.

This also attempts to explain the troubled relationship between Smiley and Anne with a kind of ultimatum at the end which Smiley fails. In lots of ways, then, this is simpler and makes Smiley less enigmatic than in the original series. The 'duel' between him and Karla is also put into plain sight with easy motivations on both sides.

If, like me, you revere John Le Carré for his moral gravitas, his understanding and depiction of ethical compromise and impossible choices, then this book doesn't play in that same space. It looks back at the early 1960s through present eyes and, apart from putting women into a space where they were largely absent in the original books, also makes a nod to present progressive ideas: Connie is willing to bring in people 'who couldn't be 'properly cleared' because they were too Jewish or too Jamaican or too intimate with other women' - just not the way JlC depicted the Circus with its old boy network, class and imperial values which themselves contribute to the overlooking of the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

So this is a decent espionage yarn, for sure - but for me JlC was way more than a thriller writer. His humane vision, political and social commentary, and moral stature gave real literary heft to his books. This is solid entertainment with classy storytelling but doesn't continue the ethical trajectory of its source material. And I'm not really a fan of the infusion of progressive values into a world where JlC was quite clear that the lack of such values was one of the very reasons for the downfall of the Circus, as he showed in his own 21st century retrospective, A Legacy of Spies

[Brandon Forsyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This could have been indescribably awful, but Harkaway does his father proud with a story that builds on the Smiley / Karla rivalry in surprising and rewarding ways. The action is character motivated in the best le Carré fashion, and while there were a few too many attempts to tie this into the aftermath of THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD for my liking, this actually feels like a welcome addition to the canon. I honestly can’t think of a higher compliment. Strongly recommended.

[Barbara K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would imagine that many fans of le Carre would feel some trepidation, as I did, before undertaking this new novel featuring George Smiley. As has so often been said, le Carre was not just a premier author of genre fiction; his writing approached the “lofty” standards of literary fiction.

So who might be so bold as to attempt to add to the canon a new story, one that helps explain the transition between the Smiley of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? The answer is his son, Nick Harkaway (Nicholas Cornwell), an author in his own right.

Fortunately, there is nothing for dedicated Smiley enthusiasts to fear in this book. Harkaway has an excellent feel for the characters and setting, and the plot could easily have come from le Carre’s pen. It involves Brits and Russians and East Germans and Hungarians in a tricky game of hide and seek. As the tale progresses we learn Karla’s backstory.

To get the most from Karla’s Choice I would recommend reading Spy first. Much is made in this book of the responses of characters in the new book to the events at the close of Spy; I would think it would be confusing not to know what those events were.

Many of the characters who populate the other Smiley books are present here: Connie Sachs, Jim Prideaux, Peter Guillam, Control, and of course Bill Hayden. It caught my attention that there are more women working for the Circus in Karla’s Choice than in the original books - a whole cadre who dig out facts for use by the principals in much the same way as women stayed in the background crunching numbers in real life stories like Hidden Figures.

If pressed, I would have to say that Harkaway lacks his father’s gift for developing an entire characterization based on a gesture, a phrase or an article of clothing. And this story is less opaque. Le Carre never spelled out his plots, especially in Spy and the Karla trilogy. The reader had to pay close attention to track what was going on. Harkaway makes it much more obvious.

Those are quibbles, though. That tone that echoed le Carre held up through the end, and I enjoyed the whole thing. If Harkaway chose to fill in more of that blank space following Spy, I would gladly read it.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

December 19, 2024 Update Adding a further interview about Karla's Choice with Nick Harkaway from the Spybrary Podcast which you can read here. Along with further background details to his writing of the book, Harkaway mentions that, although there is as yet no contract for a further George Smiley continuation novel, he is already researching a possible sequel set in 1965 🕵🏻.

Just When I Thought I Was Out...
A review of the Viking US hardcover (October 22, 2024) with reference to the simultaneously released eBook.

The truth was more complex: that the world could change in an instant from clear and kind to desperate and cold, and the trick to survival lay in knowing that instant before it happened, and not when. This was a skill he had once possessed, but could not guarantee until he tested it again.

This was a complete delight for several reasons. It was a resurrection of both author John le Carré, penname of David Cornwell (in the form of his son Nicholas Cornwell aka Nick Harkaway) and his greatest fictional character the spymaster and mole hunter George Smiley. It had the completely correct tone and style and structure of the best of Carré. It had the blessing of today's present-day top espionage writer Mick Herron (in the form of a blurb). And it even extended the world of Carré's Circus (his nickname for the UK Secret Intelligence Service/MI6) with a few choice additions.


Actor Alec Guinness as George Smiley in the 1979 TV series adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974).

Karla's Choice finds George Smiley pulled out of retirement by the Circus chief Control when a KGB assassin defects and his supposed target goes on the run. Control trusts Smiley above all the other top Circus agents and entrusts him with the mission to uncover the secrets behind both the kill order and to locate the intended victim. This takes Smiley through a labyrinth of assumed identities, false passports, defections, infiltrations, daring rescues and illicit border crossings. Too much detail would be spoilers.

As the title implies, the puppet master behind everything is the Moscow Centre (aka KGB) spymaster known only by the codename Karla, who is the continued antagonist in Carré's later Karla trilogy (1974-1979). The events in Karla's Choice take place shortly after 1963's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold.

Readers not previously familiar with Carré novels should know that there are spoilers here for both The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1963) and A Legacy of Spies (2017). Old time fans will only relish the return to the glory days of the Circus.

There was a bit of added delight in Harkaway adding some further nicknames to the Circus hierarchy in such groups and characters as the Bad Aunts, the Sheepdogs and Scalpel. Also that the nickname Scalphunters was a Bill Haydon invention which had irritated Control.

We can only hope that Nick Harkaway furthers his continuation series with additional Smiley and Circus intrigues and adventures. I started reading Karla's Choice as a hardcover, but found that I was highlighting so many passages that I just had to reference the eBook as well to save myself the work of transcribing quotable sections.

Trivia and Links
Nick Harkaway is the penname of Nicholas Cornwell, the son of David Cornwell aka John le Carré. His own previous novels are in the science fiction and dystopia genres. His most popular books have been The Gone-Away World (2008) and Titanium Noir (2023).

Read an excerpt from Karla's Choice at Penguin Books UK.

Read an interview with Nick Harkaway about the writing of Karla's Choice at NPR.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read most of both LeCarré and his son Harkaway. I was sad when LeCarré passed and surprised when Harkaway resurrected the reluctant Smiley. The book gives me a lot of hope for the future of Smiley, Etc. Harkaway might have been the only one with the dexterity and history to tackle this project with the precision and soul it deserved.

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bravo Nick Harkaway!

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this with mixed emotions - happy and intrigued to see much loved characters given a new story, but also it's easy to be cynical about le Carre's son carrying on the Smiley legacy, both keeping the cash coming in and the familial nepotism that gifts a publishing deal. Thankfully, the endeavour proves worthwhile, with Harkaway's uncanny imitation of le Carre's prose and a plot worthy of the much-loved characters. Not the master, but a welcome return and the promise of more Smiley adventures is tantalising and something to look forward to. A must read for those who enjoyed the original books.

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Good, I "Read" It Twice!
A review of the Viking audiobook (October 22, 2024) narrated by Simon Russell Beale and released simultaneously with the Viking hardcover/eBook.

I already raved about Karla's Choice in my review of the hardcover/eBook back in late 2024. It was also one of my Books of the Year for 2024. As I had a spare Audible credit I decided to listen to the audiobook as well. It had the benefit of actor Simon Russell Beale doing the narration. Beale brings the gravitas of years of acting experience to his voice performance. He was also the narrator for an earlier series of BBC Audio productions of several of the John le Carré / Smiley novels.

I will say that likely the audiobook was easier for me to follow as I already knew the characters and the plot and the twists and surprises ahead of time. Beale's performance was excellent of course.

I also noted the wonderful congruence that Beale will be one of the actors in the upcoming film The Choral (2025) director Nicholas Hytner, based on an original screenplay by Alan Bennett, who was the author of Killing Time (2024) one of my other Books of the Year for 2024. So the circle is unbroken 😊!

Trivia and Links
Nick Harkaway is the penname of Nicholas Cornwell, the son of David Cornwell aka John le Carré. His own previous novels are in the science fiction and dystopia genres. His most popular books have been The Gone-Away World (2008) and Titanium Noir (2023).

Read an excerpt from Karla's Choice at Penguin Books UK.

Read interviews with Nick Harkaway about the writing of Karla's Choice at NPR and at Spybrary. In the latter interview Harkaway mentions that, although there is as yet no contract for a further George Smiley continuation novel, he is already researching a possible sequel set in 1965 🕵🏻.
.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

For years Century City, California held a Bad Hemingway Contest, a writing contest that gave out awards to the best mock-Hemingway writer who submitted the best bad Hemingway story in really bad Hemingway style. The contest ended after some years but I believe it has since been revived as a Bad LeCarre Contest. The hands down winner in this year’s contest is Nick Harkaway’s “Karla’s Choice”. But Harkaway has a leg up - he’s John LeCarre’s son.

Don’t get me wrong, “Karla’s Choice” is pretty good. The Circus (a version of MI6) is in turmoil with the death of Alec Leamas (The Spy Who Came In From the Cold). Leamas’ boss George Smiley retired (In protest? Forced? In shame?). But one day a Hungarian literary agent goes missing on the same day a man appears at his office and says he is there to kill him when he returns to the office. So the literary agent’s assistant dashes over to…the Circus to inform them of what transpired in her office. Not exactly my knee jerk reaction. Nor would I expect there to be a branch office of the Circus just around the corner.

In short order the incident gets kicked upstairs to Control. I’m still not sure what the tipoff was that gave this high priority but Control’s immediate reaction was, bring me Smiley. Uh, Mr. Control, he retired. Don’t contradict me, you blithering idiot! So the retired Smiley, just about to go on vacation with the lovely Ann (the adjective, "lovely", referring to Ann, appears with the frequency of “billionaire Elon Musk"), is immediately coerced into unretiring and finding the literary agent who may or may not be a double agent. Smiley’s plan is for the lovely Ann to go ahead on vacation while he solves the case. He will join her later on.

Now I've read many George Smiley books but never did I see him rip off his suit to reveal a cape and an outfit of tights with a big S (for Smiley) on his chest. But in “Karla’s Choice” he becomes Super Smiley and is everywhere at once; not Deus ex Machina, but Dei ex Machina. There is no checkpoint he cannot schmooze is way past, in any language. And all roads lead to the faceless, but utterly dangerous, Karla.

Harkaway pulls out all the familiar stops with, as Mad Magazine used to say, the usual gang of idiots; Peter Guillam, Jim Prideaux, Bill Hayden, Toby Esterhase. They’re all there. He even has Smiley clean the lenses of his glasses with his tie. Shameless. Having said all this I rather liked “Karla’s Choice”. But would you rather read “Smiley’s People”, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, or the winner of the Bad LeCarre Contest? Your choice.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harkaway honours his father’s legacy with his recreation of mood, tone and style. I’m not a big Le Carre follower so I’m not able to do a forensic dissection and go into the differences. I have read some of Haraway's other books though and can discern the change in style and tone than the one used in this one. For example he is much more snarky and sarcastic in his books.

Within the spy story, Karla’s Choice gives us character studies, a fast plotline which sags a little in the middle –but which also gives impetus to the characters and brings out more and more facets of the characters in study.

Life is a game played by the rules. The rules are made by life itself and also by those in power who rule the borders, the internal government within the borders and the economic distribution within. So, we play the game which in some instances can tear us apart but underlining all we remain human with our loves and our hates and our choices.

An ARC kindly provided by author/publisher via Netgalley

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this was lovely.

Nick Harkaway, the son of John Le Carré (David Cornwell) and a successful author in his own right, took a deep breath and with the family's urging dove into the world of his father's George Smiley novels. He picked the ten-year period between 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' and 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' as a fruitful era to set a spy story.

In an introduction he discusses the fear he had of doing it, resisting it for quite some time. Once he committed to it, he realized that he was well familiar with the Smiley character (his father used to read his early drafts out loud at the breakfast table). All he had to do was immerse himself in the writing style his father used at the time and craft a tale concerning the most iconic British spy in fiction (after a certain 007, perhaps).

Yeah, that's all. Piece of cake, right?

So how did he do? As a Le Carré completist, I have to say that he did an admirable job. We get more of Smiley's interior life than what his father wrote, I believe, and Smiley is certainly more involved in action in this one, but that makes it read a little more contemporary without taking away from the dry wit and careful observations of the original books.

It's interesting how he pitched this. One assumes he is writing for the benefit of readers who already know how the Smiley story plays out, so he has a number of Easter eggs and fore-shadowing. At the same time, the ghost of Alec Leamas from the previous book looms large over this one. For that reason, this would not be the best book for a reader unfamiliar with Smiley.

If I were to advise a new reader, I'd say read them in chronological order: 'Spy Who Came In” first, then this one, then 'Tinker Tailor', then 'Smiley's People'. That way the reader doesn't know the secrets that will be revealed later, and also who is going to survive this book. And they won't know in advance what Karla's Choice will be, although veteran readers will, and will recognize the resonance with the end of 'Smiley's People'.

How about for those veteran readers of Le Carré and Smiley? Oh, you definitely have to read this book. Don't just believe me, believe that guy who Nick credits in the acknowledgements:

“Joe Hill – one of the few people on earth who can claim to understand the scale of my fear around this book – read it early, and responded swiftly and with vigorous enjoyment. The man's a treasure.”

Joe Hill is, of course, Stephen King's son, and knows about carving out his own writing career in the shadow of a famous literary father.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Le Carre’s son writes a Smiley novel and it was great. Very hard to put down, I got absorbed into the spy world of the Cold War and the Circus.

[Trevor Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and very good at mimicking his father's style but very hard to follow. A difficult read, over complicated.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around 50 pages in, I nearly gave up on Karla's Choice. I found myself rereading the same pages, trying to make sense of the dense paragraphs. I'm usually quick to set aside novels that don't pull me in right away, but something told me to ride it out. Then a friend encouraged me to stay the course. By the end, I'm so very glad I did.

I've read a handful of Le Carré novels—mostly his one-offs (e.g. The Constant Gardener, The Russia House, The Tailor of Panama), so while I have a passing familiarity with the world of George Smiley, I'm hardly a fan. But positive reviews of this extension of the series—penned with deep attention, affection and skill by Le Carré son, Nick Harkaway—as well as my own desire to read just about anything that pulls me away from modern politics and culture and into the easier-to-digest past led me to give it a go.

While you can plunge cold into Smiley's Cold War at any point, it does help to have a context of both the characters and Le Carré’s writing and intent, so I'm glad to have at least read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which forms part of the so-called Karla series, but confusingly, Karla's Choice is set prior to TTSP, so really, it doesn't matter, but if you're going to start somewhere, I suggest you start with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, which precedes the events of this current novel. Wait, what?

Look, just have fun with this. As I mentioned, it was slow going for me at first as it assumes familiarity with past events and characters and doesn't bother to explain itself. But even as I floundered to catch up, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen next and where all this was going. The Cold War spycraft is delicious fun, the characters are rich and nuanced, the Realpolitik chilling even now, knowing as we all do how things would end ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!..."), an ending that has a through line to our relationship with Russia today.

Intelligent intrigue. Mr. Harkaway has done George Smiley, and his own father, very proud.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't really fit neatly into either of the two groups Nick Harkaway enumerates in his prologue - people who are so attached to George Smiley that they will love this book "whatever it is", and people who refuse to read it for the same reason - my love for John le Carré's oeuvre extends far beyond Smiley.

I wanted to read this because I've already consumed everything le Carré ever wrote, and since Graham Greene is dead there aren't many authors out there that can do what he did, i.e., write books that are notionally genre fiction but that are in fact simply good books that handily break out of the narrow confines of the espionage genre. Evidently the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree (author Nick Harkaway is John le Carré's son), because that's what Karla's Choice is.

The existing cast of characters Nick inherited, literally and metaphorically, are wonderfully evoked - the music of Toby Esterhase's Hungaro-English was a particular highlight for me - and his new creations are easily their peers. He does something good by rebalancing the gender inequality inherent to a cast of characters first dreamt up in the 1960s by filling out Connie Sachs' research team, the 'Bad Aunts'; I suspect we haven't seen the last of S(z)usanna Gero, either. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with, e.g., the Bletchley Park codebreakers knows that women have always had a huge part to play in the secret world.

This is a more than worthy entry in the Smiley canon - and, tantalisingly, perhaps the first of many. In my opinion, not just a great novel about spies and spying, but a great book in its own right - as well as one that makes the other Smiley novels better for existing. For example, although Karla must be opaque and unknowable, we now have the reason why he thought that going after someone that was family to Smiley was not 'out of bounds' - Smiley had made the first move. That's quite the trick to have pulled off.

I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Penguin Random House via NetGalley, in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm between 4 and 5 stars on this one. Thoroughly enjoyable. Nick Harkaway did an excellent job of carrying on his father's characters in this series. Especially George Smiley himself, who is a skillful spy with a heart. 'Smiley believed not in ideology but--against the evidence--in people, which was a sin no one in the secret world could afford.'

[Michael Howells · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indecipherable plot/ending.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Nick Harkaway explains in his Author’s Note, there were always supposed to be more George Smiley books but by then the ‘external Smiley’ – particularly as embodied by Sir Alec Guinness in the 1979 TV adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – had supplanted his father’s own image of Smiley in his head. Karla’s Choice is Harkaway’s attempt to give us that more Smiley, taking advantage of the ten year gap in Smiley’s fictional life between the events of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. (In fact, there was another novel between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – The Looking-Glass War – although Smiley plays a less substantial role in it.)

It’s probably not essential to have read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold but it would certainly help (plus it’s a great book) because the events of that novel, which culminates in the death of British agent Alec Leamas, loom large over Karla’s Choice. They definitely loom large in George Smiley’s mind being the person who was sent in to ‘clear up’ after Leamas’ death. Movingly, Smiley recalls the task of choosing the clothes in which Leamas would be buried. I felt one of the strengths of the book was the way it explored the moral dilemmas faced by those working in intelligence. ‘They were spies. Deception and betrayal were their legitimate tactics.’ Also the burden of living with the consequences of your actions, actions which may prove fatal for others.

Officially Smiley has retired from the Circus and is attempting to repair his marriage to Ann. The author gives us a tender portrait of their relationship. Although very different in character, their mutual affection is believable. However, he is lured back by that wily figure, Control, head of the Circus, to investigate the sudden disappearance of publisher, Laszlo Banati, shortly before the arrival of a Russian agent sent to kill him. With the assistance of Banati’s assistant Susanna, a Hungarian émigrée, Smiley attempts to discover more about the man who called himself Banati, why he disappeared and why someone should want to kill him.

What follows is an intricately plotted manhunt that takes us across Europe. What gradually emerges is the story of a boy whose identity now, decades later, must remain a closely guarded secret. It reunites Smiley with an individual he met long ago who has now reached the pinnacle of power within the Russian security service – Karla. It takes quite a long time for Karla to appear on the scene given the book’s title but then this is only the beginning of the duel between Smiley and Karla that plays out in later books including Smiley’s People.

The author skilfully evokes the atmosphere of the Circus, with its rather public school like quality and specialist departments who jealously guard the nature of their activities and are often presided over by idiosyncratic individuals such as the redoubtable Connie Sachs with her remarkable memory and facility for marshalling information. If you’re familiar with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy I think you’ll agree the author gets it spot on when it comes to the depiction of characters such as Toby Esterhase, keen to adopt the persona of an Englishman but unable to hide his Hungarian roots, or Bill Haydon, all lascivious charm and miffed if he’s not at the centre of what’s going on. (Personally, I can never see the names of the characters without picturing the actors who played them in the 1979 TV adaptation.)

Nick Harkaway admits there will be people who love Karla’s Choice because, as he says, ‘their attachment to George Smiley and the Circus is so deep that any slight touch of his hand is enough to bring them joy’. On the other hand, he knows there may be others whose hackles rise at his ‘absurd hubris’. I’m definitely in the first category. I thought the book was a brilliant addition to the George Smiley oeuvre and I was completely drawn into the world the author has created. I think his father would be proud.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free pre-publication copy in return for an unbiased review.

I wasn't sure what I was going to make of this. I am a big fan of John Le Carre, and have enjoyed all the Smiley books. (Though a non-Smiley book of his is actually my favourite - The Constant Gardener, check it out if you haven't read it). I was intrigued at the chance to read more from Smiley and the Circus team but was unsure whether or not it would work having someone else write it. Harkaway is Le Carre's son, so if anyone were to do it it would make sense for it to be him. At times, the style is so well done you do forget that you aren't reading a Le Carre. Is this a good thing, or should the author be attempting to add his own style to the book? There are arguments both ways I think. On a few occasions in the book though I felt there were some attempts to make the characters feel less dated, in their attitudes and behaviours, presumably to make them chime better for a modern audience. I didn't think this really worked - they are of their time, the attitudes were of their time and that can't really be changed.

As an aside, I still don't think I understand the Smiley/Ann relationship all that well, and this book adds another dimension to that which merely adds to my confusion! Still, I think this is a good addition to the set of Smiley stories and I think if you are a fan of a spy novel then you will enjoy it.

[Bruce Beckham · Rating 2 out of 5]

The protagonist (Smiley, I think – although this is questionable) is only mildly engaging and distinctly vanilla in character. The antagonist (Karla, I think), ideally relentless and remorseless is mainly absent and anonymous. Jeopardy is thin on the ground and is largely the province of peripheral characters about whom I didn’t find I cared. There are oodles of well-written words but in the form of exposition that bogs down the progress of what is a mundane plot – which in turn labours to an uncertain climax and peters out. Plaintive monotone narration made the audiobook quite an ordeal. I was disappointed as I had high hopes and, having recommended it, now must face the wrath of our street book group.

[Priit Rohumaa · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @35%

An exceptionally difficult-to-read book in terms of style. There are certainly people who can enjoy such confusion in a book's content. There's an enormous multitude of characters and such a confusing narrative. To be honest, I started listening to this book from the beginning four times. Each time I realized there was no point in listening to this book until the end. Maybe this is one of those books you need to read on paper and take notes in a notebook somewhere.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really does feel like a long lost le Carré: Harkaway steps into his father's shoes so well I'm sure he'd have been proud. Plot and writing really impressive; a slow burn moving from London to inside the Eastern Bloc that becomes incredibly tense later on. I enjoyed it immensely.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely takes you into George Smiley's world. You don't always know where you are or what threads you're pulling at, but that's part of the joy of his shadowy world.

[Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow do I have mixed thoughts with this one. I had approached Karla’s Choice with plenty of trepidation for several reasons, the primary being the uncertainty about Nick Harkaway as a writer (having not read his work before). I can confidentially say, he is a strong and eloquent writer and doesn’t try to mimic his father’s prose, which could have ended disastrously if done poorly. You have some true standout scenes here and pieces of tension perfectly ripped out of a classics John Le Carré yarn. However, this often felt like a “greatest hits” playlist of Le Carré. The hallmarks are there. Smiley, the Cold War, running agents, Berlin, Karla, the Circus names and faces you know and love (and loathe). I wondered at times, who is this for? Le Carré devotes (of which I’d say I’m one of them) may find this overly sentimental and even nostalgic while also being a Smiley outing which ultimately feels extraordinarily familiar to countless other, arguably better Smiley entries. New readers may be completely overwhelmed by the reliance on prior knowledge to events found in previous entries, namely The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, and not glimpse some of the subtle nods to future entries like Tinker Tailor Solider Spy. Ultimately, this is a well written and tense Cold War espionage thriller, yes. But it still feels somewhat out of place amidst the other Le Carré stories thanks to its “greatest hits” feel throughout and lack of bite and political commentary that is otherwise so prevalent in Le Carré’s stories. A mixed bag that has some great highs for the character of George Smiley but one which I can’t imagine revisiting anytime soon or thinking about too much in the future. Though I sympathize mightily with Harkaway being tasked with this book as the pressure and stress associated with creating this surely must be extraordinary, and from a writing perspective, he does a great deal right and well here.

[Mr W P Dunbar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to be involved

As much as I wished to enjoy it the style and direction didn’t hold my attention which was disappointing.
Previous books headlined under Le Carre have remained an essential part of my library.

[Celia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, I admire the effort but the son is not the father. The old characters are there and the writing is in the style of the father, but it lacks the father's hand.

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not simply better than I expected, but excellent. Plot, characterization, pacing, and a type of dry humour I can understand but can't replicate, all add up to more than the sum of the parts. I was afraid it would be a pastiche, but Harkaway, for having heard it so long and intimately, revives a voice, makes it his own.

[Jerry Jonckheere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read in the series of spy thrillers by John Le Carre. While this book was written by his son, it uses his famous spy to help solve the mystery of a Hungarian book dealer that the Soviets want gone in this 1963 thriller. Great read... great flow.

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first of I hope of many continuations by Harkaway of his father, David Cornwall (John le Carré)'s series of books about the British Secret Intelligence Service (the 'Circus') in the mid-20th century. As Harkaway explains in his prologue, there were always intended to be more of these books, focussing on George Smiley, and indeed le Carré published a couple shortly before his death.
In Karla's Choice, we return to Smiley's heyday, the 1960s, and see George, who has temporarily left the Circus after the events of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, called back in a crisis (as of course would happen several more times and it's nice to see how Harkaway docks his Smiley seamlessly with the one in the previous books). In true le Carré fashion, an apparently minor event has set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of the Circus and someone is needed to attend to business.

So we get to see the Circus again, perhaps not quite in all its pomp but as a more powerful organisation than the burnt out shell it becomes later. And we also meet its denizens, not least the traitor who will be unmasked in earlier books (if you follow the sequence). I won't name them in case you haven't read the other books yet, but the knowledge of that person's later betrayal provides a frisson here when secrets are being discussed...

In the best tradition of these stories, Karla's Choice offers us an apparently dry narration enlivened by a lot of erudition and plenty of secrets - tradecraft, ruminations on the Cold War, both practical and moral, deeply rooted in history and, of course, humour. There is also the tension between the grizzled inmates of the Circus and a young woman - a Hungarian refugee, Susanna Gero - who is about to be immersed in their life when the secret world, the world of Smiley and Karla, reaches out for her. How and why it does that - and why her boss has disappeared - unfolds unhurriedly, but in detail, throughout the book.

The relationship that develops in this book between George and Susannah is complex. One is reluctant to keep playing these games, disillusioned even in his own mind, but still accepting of the twisted logic of the looking-glass war, if always on the verge of shaking its dust form his feet. The other is new to the whole scene but also, seems to have a more ruthless streak than him (as someone who crossed Europe for refuge - people were still allowed to do that in the 60s - as almost still a challenge, you think, surely she must know more than she's letting on?)

We also see various stranded and beached figures who will become the famous faces of the chronologically later stories - incipient alcoholic Connie, for example; Control, before the catastrophe that is a few years down the line. And of course George's wife, with Karla's Choice perhaps equally deserving of the title Ann's Choice...

All in all, a fascinating and thrilling addition to the Smiley canon, Harkaway showing that, yes, the menu is excellent and the chef really can cook.

[Gary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite author, until his death, was John le Carré. For many years he produced the richest, most elegant, thought provoking and exciting prose. With plots of pure truth and dignity, even in failure. I have everything he published. It fills an entire shelf in my library. Each book a wonderful, personal enjoyment. His death was staggering to readers around the world.

Then we discovered, although dead and gone, he had one more book up his sleeve for us. Saved for after he was gone. He had obtained a promise from his youngest son, also a great author, to finish up any unfinished books. The promise kept and then we had Silverview. A wonderful book. After Silverview, came a wonderful doorstop of a book: A Private Spy, The Letters of John le Carré, edited by his son. Letters as elegant, accurate, and profound, as his books.

And now we have Karla’s Choice, written by his son, under the name of Nick Harkaway. I waited forever, and now it’s here. A successful author on his own, this is written as a le Carré novel, covering a gap in the time in the Smiley vs. Karla conflict. Starting to read this, I almost cried with joy. He has his fathers voice, the light touch, the style, structure, and elegance. Pure joy. This will probably be my best book of 2024. The father must be very proud of the son…