IN FROM THE COLD AGAIN: Nick Harkaway to pen John le Carré novel

News Flash!!

Viking will publish a new novel starring John le Carré’s iconic character George Smiley. The novel will be authored by John le Carré’s son, Nick Harkaway, an award-winning novelist and author of titles including Gnomon and Tigerman. 

George Smiley is one of the most memorable characters of the twentieth century – the novels in which he features have sold 30 million copies across all formats around the world and become defining documents of espionage literature. This new book will explore the life and world of George Smiley and the Circus in the decade in between the devastating final scenes of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the opening pages of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
 
Harkaway’s George Smiley novel will be published in hardback, ebook and audio formats in autumn 2024. 

George Smiley is one of the most memorable literary creations of the twentieth century.  An antidote to more fantastical, all-action depictions of spy craft, the novels in which he features are now defining documents of espionage literature, including classics such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People. From Smiley’s debut in 1961 to his previously most recent outing in 2017, the novels starring the renowned spy have sold over 30 million copies across all formats around the world. Margaret Atwood has said, “The Smiley novels are key to understanding the 20^th century,” while New York Times has written, “Smiley is the finest secret agent in the world.” Over the decades, Smiley has been played in film and television adaptations by the great actors of the era – James Mason, Alec Guinness and most recently Gary Oldman, in some of the finest performances in their careers.

Almost a decade passes between the devastating final scenes of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the opening pages of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The new novel will begin the exploration of the life and world of George Smiley and the Circus in these missing years.

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From the Publisher: 

John le Carré is one of Britain’s greatest ever writers. He was born in 1931, and over six decades he formed a literary world that came to define our age. He published his debut novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961 while still working in the secret service. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People, followed by A Legacy of Spies in 2017. At the end of the Cold War, le Carré widened his scope to explore an international landscape that included the arms trade and the War on Terror.

Le Carré’s memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel, was published to rapturous reviews in 2016 and has recently been adapted by Academy Award winning documentarian Errol Morris, in conversation with David Cornwell in what would be his final interview. The film premiered at Telluride and has gone on to receive global critical acclaim across film festivals including in Toronto, New York, and London, and on its release in theatres and on AppleTV+ in October this year.

David Cornwell died on December 12, 2020. Silverview, which was left complete upon the author’s death, was published posthumously in 2021 to great acclaim and brought to publication by Harkaway.
Harkaway is the author of books including Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman and Titanium Noir; and, writing under the name of Aidan Truhen, of the Jack Price novels, beginning with The Price You Pay. The Guardian writes of Harkaway that, “His great gift as a novelist is to merge the pace, wit and clarity of the best ‘popular’ literature with the ambition, complexity and irony of the so-called ‘literary’ novel” – a rare combination which le Carré himself also achieved.

Nick Harkaway said, “Smiley is woven into my life; Tinker Tailor was written in the two years after I was born and I grew up with the evolution of the Circus, so this is a deeply personal journey for me, and of course it’s a journey which has to feel right to the le Carré audience. It also seems as if we need the Smiley stories back now because they ask us the questions of the moment: what compassion do we owe to one another as human beings, and at what point does that compassion become more important than nation, law or duty?”

Jonny Geller said, “When I read the opening chapters of Nick’s story, I had this uncanny feeling David (John le Carré) had just delivered his new work to me. I heard David’s voice lift off the page. Not only has Nick caught his father’s idiom, but he has also inhabited the world of the Circus and Tinker Tailor to create a completely new story, set in the period just after the end of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. This will be the literary event of 2024.”

Brian Tart, President & Publisher of Viking Penguin in the US, said, “When the le Carré estate came to us with the idea of writing a novel set in the ten-year gap between two of his most iconic novels, I felt it was an extraordinary opportunity for us as publishers, but also a gift for those readers who have cherished the entire le Carré oeuvre.”

The book will be published in hardcover, ebook and audio formats in Fall 2024.

John le Carré: R.I.P.

Such sad news. John le Carré was one of my favorite authors. He will be missed.

From the New York Times:

John le Carré, whose exquisitely nuanced, intricately plotted Cold War thrillers elevated the spy novel to high art by presenting both Western and Soviet spies as morally compromised cogs in a rotten system full of treachery, betrayal and personal tragedy, died on Saturday in Cornwall, England. He was 89.

His death was confirmed on Sunday by his literary agency, the Curtis Brown Group.

Before Mr. le Carré published his bestselling 1963 novel The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, which Graham Green called “the best spy story I have ever read,” the fictional model for the modern British spy was Ian Fleming’s James Bond — suave, urbane, devoted to queen and country. With his impeccable talent for getting out of trouble while getting women into bed, Bond fed the myth of spying as a glamorous, exciting romp.

Mr. Le Carré — the pen name of David Cornwell — upended that notion with books that portrayed British intelligence operations as cesspools of ambiguity in which right and wrong are too close to call and in which it is rarely obvious whether the ends, even if the ends are clear, justify the means.

Led by his greatest creation, the plump, ill-dressed, unhappy, brilliant, relentless George Smiley, Mr. le Carré’s spies are lonely, disillusioned men whose work is driven by budget troubles, bureaucratic power plays and the opaque machinations of politicians — men who are as likely to be betrayed by colleagues and lovers as by the enemy. 

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Read the New York Times obituary here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/books/john-le-carre-best-selling-author-of-cold-war-thrillers-is-dead-at-89.html

Read The Guardian Obit here. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/13/john-le-carre-author-of-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-dies-aged-89

John le Carré's The Night Manager Comes to U.S.

At last! The miniseries of John le Carré's The Night Manager will be coming to the U.S. on AMC, beginning April 19.  Just an FYI: The new production (there has been a movie) updates the story to the present and changes a main character's gender.

The Night Manager is a six-part miniseries premiering on Tuesday, April 19, is a contemporary interpretation of John le Carré’s best-selling spy novel, which follows hotel manager Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) in his quest to bring down international arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie). Pine, a former soldier, is thrust into a world of international intrigue when he is recruited by a British intelligence officer (Olivia Colman) to infiltrate Roper’s inner circle. To get to the heart of Roper’s vast empire, Pine must withstand the allure of his beautiful girlfriend Jed (Elizabeth Debicki) and the suspicious interrogations of his venal chief of staff Major Corkoran (Tom Hollander). In his quest to do the right thing, Pine must first become a criminal himself.

Can't wait!