Karla's Choice

A John le Carré Novel

By: Nick Harkaway

Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Nick Harkaway

The instant international bestseller set in the world of John le Carré's most iconic spy, George Smiley, written by acclaimed novelist Nick Harkaway

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West’s spy war against the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only for a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumor 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 Szusanna, 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 soon finds himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come and set him on a collision course with the greatest enemy he will ever make.

Set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in John le Carré's George Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Karla’s Choice marks a momentous return to the world of spy fiction's greatest writer.

©2024 Nick Harkaway (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2024 by the Washington Post, the Guardian, LitHub, Crime Reads, Boston Globe, and AARP

"Nick Harkaway's novel delivers fresh Cold War intrigue for John le Carré’s redoubtable spymaster."—Wall Street Journal

"John le Carré’s son does him proud in an excellent spy thriller about a Soviet agent that faithfully bridges two of his father’s classic tales. . . Harkaway reproduces his father’s rhythms at the level of sentence and plot alike, with slow-burn tension giving way to agonizing jeopardy as cat-and-mouse games explode into crunching hand-to-hand combat or street gun battles. . . [Karla’s Choice is] a loving tribute to a complicated father (as Harkaway’s dedication seems to acknowledge) as well as an excellent novel in its own right."—The Guardian

"Karla’s Choice is a Cold War espionage novel taking up the characters that people regard as quintessentially le Carré: the rumpled, melancholy Smiley and his ruthless Soviet counterpart Karla. By writing it, Harkaway hasn’t just crossed into his father’s literary airspace—he’s descending into the heart of the territory and rolling out the landing gear. . . It’s an homage to John le Carré, from the characters to the cadences of his prose. It’s also, undeniably, a document of grief for David Cornwell."—Sophia Nguyen, Washington Post