For a while now you've probably been hearing about bookbands, how they're gaining momentum everywhere in Texas, in Missouri, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

On the Code Switch Podcast, we're taking a look at why.

Why are so many books suddenly considered so dangerous to kids?

Listen to our new series on the Code Switch Podcast from NPR.

This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. John Lacari wrote spy novels that transcended the genre.

Philip Roth called Licari's 1986 novel, A Perfect Spy, the best English novel since the war.

His most beloved character was George Smiley, the physically unassuming but brilliant British

spymaster, the protagonist of many of Lekare's novels, including Tinker Taylor's soldier spy and Smiley's people.

Lekare, whose real name was David Cornwell, died in 2020, but George Smiley returns in a new novel called

Carla's Choice. It's written by Cornwall's son Nick, who goes by his own pen name Nick Harkaway.

Harkaway spoke with fresh airs Sam Berger.

Here's Sam.

Carla's choice takes place in 1963 between Lakerries novels The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and Tinker Taylor

soldier spy. Smiley has retired from the circus, the nickname for the British

Overseas Intelligence Agency, after an agent and his lover were killed in East Berlin,

their lives sacrificed for the success of a mission, a decision Smiley initially agreed to but has

come to regret.

But Smiley is called back into service by his boss, known as

Control, to conduct one simple interview, however that leads to much more than he bargained for.

The story also serves as the origin story of Smiley's nemesis in the

KGB, known only as Carla. This is Nick Harcaway's first George Smiley novel, but

his eighth overall. They include Tiger Man, Nomen, and titanium noir. So Nick Harkaway,

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