I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.

The works of John Lecqueray are among the most beloved thrillers of our time.

For some, books like Tinker Taylor Soldier spy, a perfect spy, the spy who came in from the cold, there are a lot of spies time. For some, books like Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, a Perfect Spy, the Spy who came in

from the Cold, there are a lot of spies here, are simply among their favorite works of literature,

full stop. So it was a perilous task that author Nick Parkaway set out for himself.

A writer of multiple well-received science fiction novels,

Parkaway picked up the torch from Lecouré,

who died in December 2020 to write a new tale starring George Smiley,

the Cold War spy who has appeared in more than a half dozen novels

and has been portrayed on screen most famously by Alec Guinness and Gary Oldman.

So, a perilous task.

I'm not sure whether the fact that Harkaway is Lecqueray's son made the assignment any easier or more difficult.

He can tell us that himself, because he's here on the podcast to discuss his novel, Carlos Choice.

Nick Harkaway, welcome to the book review podcast.

Thank you very much.

So, Nick, I'm glad I reread the spy who came in from the cold before picking up Carlos choice.

You chose to set Carlos Choice between that book and Tinker Taylor. These are two of John Lickere's most famous works,

maybe the most famous. Why was that a particularly fruitful place for you to start to play around

in, this 10-year gap between those two books.

So that gap is the place in the Smiley continuity where you can tell a new story and it belongs only to itself. Even though, yes, we follow on from Spiking from the Cold, and even though, yes,

ultimately we're going to have to end up with Tinker Taylor. There's enough space in that 10 years

that you can tell new stories with new arcs, new joy and new sorrows and so on, so that you

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