The Taper Man

The Taper Man by Nick Harkaway, renowned for his bestselling take on George Smiley, returns with the iconic spy hot on the trail of a traitor at the top of American intelligence.

It is 1965, and the Cold War has never been colder. The Circus, the secret centre of British intelligence, has one prized asset left in Moscow: a senior Red Army officer with access to the enemy's deepest secrets. However, when a British agent is shot in Helsinki, George Smiley uncovers a Soviet operation that imperils this irreplaceable source.

The trail leads Smiley not to Berlin or Vienna, but Los Angeles—the most foreign place he has ever known. In the murky heart of US intelligence, a Communist sleeper agent, a 'Taper Man', is poised to expose Britain’s operative in Moscow. To save him, Smiley must navigate an America riven with political tension, all while his spy in Leningrad, Roy Bland, risks everything in pursuit of a Russian defector who holds the final piece of the 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 Carré. 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.