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AudioBook information:
Author: Nick Harkaway
Narrated by: Rory Kinnear
Release date: November 17, 2026
Audiobook Duration: 12 h 50 min
Summary: A bold and electrifying expansion of John le Carré’s literary universe, where—for the first time—George Smiley crosses the Atlantic into the perilous world of Cold War America
It’s 1965, and the world lives on a knife edge. After the nuclear standoff in Cuba, and with Vietnam even now becoming a major conflict zone, the Cold War is colder than ever. The Circus, home of British intelligence, has one formidable clandestine asset in Moscow: a senior officer in the Red Army who is privy to deep Soviet secrets. But when a British agent is shot on a routine visit to Helsinki, George Smiley uncovers a counter-intelligence operation which puts all that in jeopardy.
The trail leads not to Berlin or Vienna but to Los Angeles, where Smiley’s nemesis, the Russian master spy known only as Karla, may have a long-term, low profile agent—a Taper Man—poised to expose London’s man in Moscow.
Hunting the traitor in the heart of US intelligence, Smiley must reckon with American’s stark internal divisions over race, patriotism and belonging as he tries to find an answer to the present crisis in the secrets of the past. Meanwhile Roy Bland, a daring but fragile Circus spy presently in Leningrad without the protection of diplomatic cover, must push his luck to breaking point to reveal the Russian end of the operation and rescue a defector whose time is running out – and get Smiley the last piece of Karla’s puzzle.
The Taper Man, the latest novel by Sunday Times bestselling author Nick Harkaway, is a gripping return to the shadow world of John le CarrĂ©. Elegant, tense and morally intricate, it is an extraordinary and timely continuation of one of literature’s greatest espionage legacies—and a landmark work of modern spy fiction.
Reviews:
Praise for The Taper Man:
“The year 1965 finds iconic British intelligence agent George Smiley hunting for a Soviet spy in…Los Angeles? Harkaway masterfully evokes the 3-D chessboard on which Smiley and his Soviet counterpart Karla hatch their schemes, each one hoping to see one move further into the future than the other. . . . The Cold War has never felt hotter.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Harkaway exhibits his father’s knack for slow reveals, complex storylines, and salient observations about human nature. George Smiley is in good hands.”
—Publishers Weekly
“George Smiley, John Le Carré’s British intelligence agent, returns in this beautifully executed spy thriller. . . . Fans of Le Carre’s Smiley novels will thoroughly enjoy this intricate, perfectly written story…[The Taper Man is an] altogether wonderful addition to the Smiley saga.”
—Booklist
“Harkaway has done a brilliant job of recreating some of his father’s best-loved characters. . . . His prose has the splendid muscularity of his father’s, and he shares le Carré’s confident ability to lay down exactly how the world works, even though here it’s a world that largely existed before he was born.”
—The Telegraph (UK)
“{An] undiluted delight. . . . Having Smiley in America allows some stereoscopic ingenuity. . . . I tip my hat as well to [the] period detail. If the BBC wants a new Smiley series, look at Harkaway.”
—The Scotsman Review (UK)
“George Smiley, subtlest of spies, lives again thanks to Nick Harkaway’s assiduous reimagining of his father’s fictional universe. . . . This is a painstaking, deliberate investigation that flares brilliantly into action in its thrilling final stages.”
—The Mail on Sunday (UK)
About the Author:
Nick Harkaway is the acclaimed author of Karla’s Choice, Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, and Titanium Noir, among others. He is the son of John le CarrĂ©, and has a unique insight into his father’s work. 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 and the ambition, complexity, and irony of the so-called ‘literary’ novel”—a rare combination which le CarrĂ© himself also achieved.