A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow.
A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow.
Tan Twan Eng’s third novel, The House of Doors, is inspired by “The Letter,” a W. Somerset Maugham story that fictionalizes the murder of tin mine manager William Steward by Ethel Proudlock, his alleged lover, in British Malaya in the early 20th century.
In Tan’s novel, Maugham arrives on the island of Penang with his secretary Gerald to spend time with Robert Hamlyn, an old friend, and his wife Lesley. It’s 1921 and Maugham is a famous writer on a downward drift—trapped in a sham marriage, his health failing, his career in question, and his financial situation threatening his freedom to travel with Gerald, the love of his life. He goes to Penang in search of a story and Lesley obliges, giving him the details surrounding the Steward murder, as well as her own secrets—even though sharing the latter could be her undoing.
The novel presents an arresting portrait of Britons in Malaya, whose restrictive mores and boredom made them susceptible to the excitement of scandal. The real and the imagined intertwine with the richness of the setting and period; Tan makes the historical background comes alive, as with the presence of Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese revolutionary.
Excerpted from this review in publishersweekly.com
Author:
Tan Twan Eng
ISBN:
9781838858308
Binding:
Paperback
Pages:
306
Year of Publication:
2023
Publisher:
Canongate Books
Edition:
First
Condition:
New
Country of Origin:
India
About the Contributors
Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, Malaysia, and worked as an advocate in one of Kuala Lumpur's leading law firms before becoming a full-time writer. His debut novel, The Gift of Rain, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007 and has been widely translated.
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