KARLA’S CHOICE by NICK HARKAWAY

Even after a few years of writing book reviews here in my blog, I’m still unsure of reviewing etiquette.

How enthusiastic is one supposed to be?

As a reviewer, am I supposed to be partisan or aloof?

But here’s the thing…given that I am not paid to review, and that I buy my own books, I guess I can say pretty much what I want, right?

So, let me say it out and clear.

I LOVED this book and I loved being back in the wonderful world of George Smiley.

Meeting familiar characters such as Toby Esterhase, Peter Guillam and Jim Prideaux is a joy, and what is especially clever and fascinating about this book is – well, yes of course, that it is written by John Le Carré’s son – but also that it is set after The Spy Who Came in from the Cold but before Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. So some things we know about the Circus (the fictional version of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service) and its inhabitants are yet to happen, as it were.

Mr. Harkaway has mentioned that he grew up in up listening to the Smiley novels over breakfast, but even with this undoubted advantage, he captures the language and atmosphere of the 1960s perfectly:

John le Carré frequently dictated his drafts to his wife at breakfast, which, Harkaway joked, included daily reading of the Smiley novels. This childhood not only shaped Harkaway’s linguistic skills but deeply ingrained in him the narratives of John le Carré’s fictional espionage world from a young age.

George Smiley is now retired, and apparently very content in this new role, spending time with his aristocratic wife, Lady Ann:

“Having done away with the Circus as his too-demanding mistress, Smiley lived between libraries and love, and came as close to contentment as a man of his peculiar constitution is able.”

But he is recalled from this retired life by Control, the boss of the Circus, for one last mission, and despite (in Ann’s words)

“You’re lucky to have caught us, we’re off to the most glamorous party in the Alps”

Smiley heads back to the Circus and into his old realm of spies and shadows and codes and long nights of endless waiting.

I won’t plot-spoil for you, but suffice it to say that “Karla’s Choice” is pitch perfect.

The story line is clever.

The writing is seamlessly Le-Carré-esque.

Highly recommended.

And fingers crossed that the talented Mr. Harkaway will write more Smiley books for us…