Writer Nick Harkaway expands his father John le Carré's spyverse in new thriller 'The Taper Man'

Britain is wracked with anxiety about national decline, Russians are meddling, and relations are strained with the U.K.'s American cousins.Cold War tensions with modern parallels ripple through “The Taper Man,” a new spy thriller set in the world created by the late John le Carré, and written by his son, Nick Harkaway.The novel sends British spymaster George Smiley to the U.S. in 1965, chasing a Soviet agent and negotiating a culture clash with “The Cousins,” le Carré’s fictionalized CIA. Its title refers to a deep-cover agent left behind after a spy ring is busted, to bide their time and await instructions.Harkaway says writing a Cold War story in 2026 is like “writing in the mirror.”He said the global situation is “weirdly the same in some slightly alarming ways, it’s weirdly different in some alarming ways.” And “many of the same discussions are carrying on.”Published this week in the U.K. and Nov. 17 in the U.S. by Viking, “The Taper Man” is Harkaway’s second le Carré novel since h