Review: Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway

Synopsis: 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 novels starring George Smiley, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this is an extraordinary, thrilling return to the world of spymaster John le Carré, written by the author’s son and acclaimed novelist, Nick Harkaway.

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It is a very well written homage to the author's father (John le Carre) and most his famous character (George Smiley). Adopting Le Carre's own style of writing, Harkaway posits Smiley into the intervening decade between two iconic novels, to flesh out Smiley's nemesis, the elusive Karla, and provide the foundations of their long rivalry. 

The narrative is not driven by relentless action (aka: Bourne or Bond), but by the subtle cat and mouse game of the intellectually driven pursuit, of investigation and analysis, of characters and events.

I was a little hesitant at first, especially when another author takes on a well known character / series as they are never in the mindset of the original author, regardless of familial relationships. However, I was not disappointed. For me, Karla's Choice, has a firm place on my bookshelves amid my own collection of Le Carre novels.

The great era for spy novels ends with the death of John le Carre

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

‘‘When you enter the secret world and you are engaged in the intensive examination of your enemy, your opponent, you in a sense begin to know him and think about him not just as an opponent but some kind of secret sharer.’’

That was John le Carre, who has died at the age of 89, talking to The Age in 2001 about his own experiences with the British secret service before he embarked on his long and more successful career as a spy novelist and fierce critic of the hypocrisy and moral and political decline of his country – and, indeed, the west. He died of pneumonia on Sunday morning (Australian time) just as the British government was stumbling towards the final deadline for Brexit, a development he loathed.

In a sense how he defined his experience running agents in East Germany for MI6 determined the nature of his novels and particularly the three great Cold War novels featuring his best-known protagonist, George Smiley: there was a lot of talk, a lot of thought and a lot of smart people trying to get a handle on what the Soviet Union and its spymaster, Karla, were up to, and then outwit them. And, of course, they were frequently hindered by a traitor - a mole - in their midst.

read more here from The Sydney Morning Herald and John le Carre