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The Taper Man

A Novel of John le Carré’s Circus

Nick Harkaway

$49.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English
Viking
22 November 2026
Nick Harkaway's bestselling take on George Smiley is back, and this time the iconic spy is on the trail of a traitor right at the top of American intelligence...

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 Carre. 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.
By:  
Imprint:   Viking
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 240mm,  Width: 156mm,  Spine: 40mm
Weight:   750g
ISBN:   9780241795309
ISBN 10:   0241795303
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Nick Harkaway is the acclaimed author of Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, Titanium Noir and Karla's Choice. He is the son of John le Carre, 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 with the ambition, complexity and irony of the so-called \""literary novel\"" - a rare combination which le Carre himself also achieved.' He lives in London with his wife and two children.

Reviews for The Taper Man: A Novel of John le Carré’s Circus

Harkaway has done an extraordinarily good job with his father’s legacy * The Telegraph * Le Carre’s legacy is in good hands – Smiley is back with a vengeance! -- Ian Rankin Harkaway is a fine writer and he has resurrected his father’s books brilliantly * The I *


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