BOOKS


Author Interview Nick Harkaway


George Smiley rides again as Nick Harkaway returns to the world created by his father John le Carré


Alice O’Keeffe @aliceokbooks 16 26th July 2024


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o, is it five George Smileys walk into a bar?” was Joe Hill’s question when he heard that Nick Harkaway was taking over from his late father, John le Carré, to pen a brand new tale of Cold War espionage featuring the legendary British spymaster. As the novelist son of Stephen King, Hill knows a thing or two about having a famous writer in the family. Harkaway too is a novelist in his own right, his 2008 début The Gone-Away World was the first of a string of novels fusing science fiction and adventure in ever-more wildly speculative ways (hence Hill’s joke about multiple Smileys). But Karla’s Choice, Harkaway’s first venture into the Smiley universe, is true to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) and Smiley’s People (1979), known collectively as the Karla trilogy, which, along with The Spy Who Came In fom the Cold (1963) make up what Harkaway refers to as the “core canon”. It is a world familiar not only to readers—le Carré’s novels have sold over 30 million copies in all formats worldwide, according to Viking—but also to those who have seen the many TV and film adaptations with Smiley memorably portrayed by Alec Guinness, Denholm


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