Sam Brigger

Yeah, it makes sense.

If you don't know that the cold water is, say, switched in the sink, then that's going to give you up right away.

So, Nick, this could be considered a prequel to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, if you care to use that word.

And one of the things that a prequel can do is kind of explain the background to behavior in the original book.

And one of the things I really like about this book is that you –

you rehabilitate the character of Anne, George Smiley's wife.

In your father's books, Anne is almost always offstage, having very public and multiple affairs, being unfaithful to Smiley.

And in fact, in Tinker Taylor, she's sort of a pawn in a huge betrayal of Smiley.

And so when you read those books, like, it's hard not to think of Anne as a kind of villain.

But you turn that on your head in this book.

One of the things that I find so sad about Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is that George spends the most amount of his time trying to figure out two people.

Like one is his nemesis Carla in the KGB, but the other is Anne, his wife, and they're both mysteries to him.

That's not a positive view of marriage, I guess I would say, too.

We'll talk about your dad's family life a little bit later.

But before we get to that, how did you approach the language of this book?

It seems to me that you're emulating your father's style of writing, which I think is quite different from your own instincts as a writer.

Like, your father tended to write...

Pretty straightforward, elegant, but simple sentences.

And I think when I read your previous books, I feel like you tend to be playful in the structure of your sentences.

They're almost Victorian in their complexity.