The House of Doors

A new book by Tan Twang Eng is exciting, they come along so rarely. This novel is a fictionalisation or real lives and real events. Usually, I find a non fiction account more interesting than the novelisation. I spent more time when reading Booth googling the people and events than reading the book. However in this instance Tan Twan Eng's writing kept my attention. The sense of place is good - Penang is Tan Twang Eng's hometown so it should be, but he also has mastered the sense of the era. The mistake made by many writers is to research a time and then throw everything into the book., This book places itself by not having any anachronisms. The first part of the book sets you up, introducing the time and place and establishing characters. We (and the fictionalised Somerset Maugham) realise that there is a story behind one of the characters that needs to be told. The second half of the book takes us back and unravels the mystery. It is a quiet book, with a well told story. It took me skillfully into another time and held my interest. Even if it hadn't been based on real characters I would have believed every moment of the book.

For me a literary masterpiece! A novel that reads like a classic. The author has masterfully captured the atmosphere of the times depicted, of the characters and the events as well. He painted a portrait of Maugham revealing him as an intriguing personality (his obvious talent, his scandalous retelling of existing people in his novels). Beautiful descriptions of Penang with its highly fascinating history have kept me absorbed throughout the novel. Faithful to the high society, his evocation of hypocrisy and the danger of homosexuality give the novel an excellent psychological insight of this era. Excellent writing! I did not know the author, and now I want to read all his books! Highly recommended!
I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

A wonderful historical novel that draws on Somerset Maugham’s biography to weave a tale of the Far East that brings together personal and political stories to create its fictional tapestry.

The House of Doors begins and ends in South Africa but the heart of the novel takes place in Penang, which is beautifully evoked. Locations faultlessly capture the early twentieth century and the colonial world that Maugham and his generation experienced. Much of the plot is linked to Maugham’s famous short story collection, The Casuarina Tree, which he wrote following his visit to Penang dramatised in the novel.

Maugham’s story, set largely in 1921, is set within the the larger story of Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert. This is a glorious literary device because not only does it introduce a fascinating parallel tale, but it allows us to see Maugham from a different perspective.

Lesley’s story essentially begins in 1910 and so the book moves over the period that included the First World War, showing the characters on either side of it.

Lesley is linked to the story of an English woman on trial for murder in Kuala Lumpur in the early twentieth century, a story that has a basis in history. Alongside these stories is another historical story: of Sun Wen, a Chinese revolutionary separated from his homeland but ultimately to return to become President of China.

The house of doors of the title is both a literal house in Penang in which a key relationship takes place and a metaphor of the different pathways that lie behind the deceptive simplicity of individual lives.

It is a novel about affairs, betrayal and sexuality, but ultimately about faithfulness and what that might mean in a duplicitous world.

This is a book equally rich in history and metaphor. It has been a long wait for a novel from Tan Twan Eng but The House of Doors is well worth the wait.

A new novel from Tan Twan Eng is a rare thing. He last published in 2011 The Garden of Evening Mists, which was short-listed for the Booker (and was my favourite of that year). This, only his third novel, come highly anticipated.

The House of Doors has, at its centre, a number of true life figures, most notably W. Somerset Maugham. He is not the central figure here, but his shadow hangs heavy over events.

It is Penang, 1921. Robert and Lesley Hamlyn live a life of high society. He is a lawyer, and she is a society hostess. When their friend Willie comes to stay, Lesley's friendship with him blossoms, but the more she comes to know the man and his history, the more she realises that the famed writer wears masks, that he hides his true self, and that he takes from life more than he gives.

It is not a damning portrait of Maugham, but through his insightful prose, Tan Twang Eng brings us as close to this man as any biography. That he then fills his novel with other stories, other lives, and a deep sense of place - you can literally feel the love for Penang on every page - he turns what might have been an ordinary piece of auto-fiction into something for more meatier, deep and fascinating. This is another magnificent novel from a great writer, perhaps not quite hitting the heights of The Garden of Evening Mists, but still an experience to savour.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

I count Tan Twan Eng’s first two books amongst my very favourite novels, so I was a little hesitant in starting The House of Doors, fearing it might be disappointing in comparison. I needn’t have worried. His latest, ten years in the making, is every bit as wonderful as the first two, maybe even better.

Right from the start I was blown away by the beauty of the writing. Both the opening and closing (set in South Africa) grabbed my emotions. In between I became engrossed by the story, place and characters. I was transported to humid tropical evenings in early 20th c. Penang with its cloying expatriate community and the limiting social and sexual mores of the time. Tan’s descriptions made me feel that I was there in Malaya, experiencing the sites, sounds and smells of the tropical days and nights.

The itself story is meticulously developed, drawing the reader progressively into the lives of the characters during two time periods, 1910 and 1921. The characters include some historical figures - Sun Yat Sen and Somerset Maugham for example - and some fictionalised ones. The storytelling alternates between the perspectives of Somerset Maugham and the wife of his host in Penang, Lesley Hamlyn, who had spent most of her life in Malaya and was married to the much older Robert. Lesley weaves the stories of the real life murder trial of a British woman and her own explicit love affair that took place at the House of Doors. She knows that by telling him her part of the story she risks destroying her marriage and the reputations of others.

Reading The House of Doors was like luxuriating in the history of a tropical paradise, one with intrigue and where things are very much not like they at first seem. It was a wonderful book, that I whole heartedly recommend.

A beautiful historic work of fiction with a great sense of time and place. Lesley and Robert live in the Malayan districe of Panang, Lesley , a society hostess, entertains whilst Robert is a high powered lawyer. Into their lives one day comes William Somerset Maughan, effectionately known as Willie. Willie is greatly troubled by his sham marriage, and Lesley proves a wonderful listener but equally as her world collapses she finds comfort from the great writer. She discloses her admiration for a revolutionary and admits to a clandestine love affair that lasted many years but was ultimately doomed, and equally scandalously discloses her relationship to a woman accused of rape many years ago. The writing is sublime using events and historical figures to create a work of fiction that I devoured in 2 sittings..."the sea that was eternal yet ceaselessly changing, from wave to wave, swell to swell"...."All of us will be forgotten eventually. Like a wave on the ocean, leaving no trace that it had once existed"....."I lay in bed for a while, listening to the drowsy waves as the light outside changed, the ink of night diluting to dawn."........"While we are living, the air sustains us, but the very instant we stop breathing, that same air immediately sinks its teeth into us. What keeps us alive will also, in the end consume us."....... Highly recommend and many thanks to NG for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written

*A big thank-you to Tan Twan Eng, Canongate, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
My third novel by the Author, highly anticipated after years of silence, centres around historic figures, the main one being W. Somerset Maughan, whose visit to Penang in early 1920s is one of the plots.
I cannot praise enough beautiful prose and descriptions of Malaysia, especially its nature, and the plots masterfully interwoven. I have read some novels by WSM but know little of his private life, so The House of Doors fills in the gaps in my literary education.
Tan Twan Eng's latest novel was definitely worth waiting for!

I loved Tan Twan Eng's first two books so I was excited to read 'The House of Doors', his first novel in over a decade. This is another historical novel, this time set in Penang exploring memory and forbidden love.

We first meet narrator Lesley Hamlyn in 1947 in Karoo, South Africa; she has been widowed for several years but the delivery of an edition of W. Somerset Maugham's volume of short stories 'The Casuarina Tree' casts her mind back to 1921 when the writer (addressed as Willie) and his secretary Gerald, stayed with Lesley and her husband Robert at their home in Penang. During his visit, Lesley ends up telling him about the events of 1910, including her discovery of Robert's infidelity, her friend Ethel Proudlock's murder trial for shooting a man she accused of raping her, and Lesley's own involvement with the campaign of Chinese revolutionary leader Dr Sun Yat Sen. Willie, facing his own personal crisis, wrestles with how to tell Lesley's story without embarrassing her and Robert among the small world of Europeans settlers in the Straits.

This is another beautifully written novel; Tan Twan Eng's prose exquisitely evokes a sense of time and place. Alternating between Lesley's first-person and Willie's third-person perspectives, the novel explores the gulf between public and private through a number of relationships which must remain secret to avoid scandal because of the prevailing attitudes towards marriage, sexuality and race. This is symbolically reflected by the eponymous 'house of doors', whose unadorned front doors conceal its more vibrant interior. The double framing of the events of 1910 with the 1921 and 1947 sections is particularly effective and moving in showing how feelings alter with the passage of time.

This novel was well worth the wait and did not disappoint. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Absolutely stunning writing by Tan Twan Eng. This is a beautifully crafted novel and an absolute joy to read. You have to wait a long time for a new novel by this author but it is so worth it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

Tan Twan Eng may not be a prolific writer, but his books are well worth waiting for. His sense of time and place is exceptional, with this novel set in Penang, an island off the coast of what is now Malaysia. It paints a vivid picture of a time when the British believed they had the only culture worth anything at all, and the local Malays and Chinese people were lesser beings. Of course there were many exceptions, and Lesley and her husband Robert became rather too entangled with Chinese people and politics. Add to that a fictional biography of the writer William Somerset Maugham and you have a recipe for a stunning, gripping and wonderfully engaging historical novel. Maugham and his ‘secretary’ Gerald are invited to stay with Lesley and Robert on an extended visit and their time in Penang coincides with a fascinating period in Chinese history, with the revolution being plotted from Sun Yat Sen’s base in Penang. Several intertwined stories here, but they are woven seamlessly together in this literary masterpiece.

(II have worked in Penang and can testify to the accuracy of Tan Twan Eng’s descriptions of the island -it was a joy to read about and recognise so many places I knew in this island paradise). .

What a wonderful piece of literary fiction. Beginning and ending in South Africa it is set mainly in 1921 in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malaya. This is a story about Lesley Hamlyn and her lawyer husband Robert who live in Cassowary House. Based on real events much of the story covers a short period when writer William ‘Willie’ Somerset Maugham visited the Hamlyn’s with his secretary. There is also a visit from Chinese activist Sun Yat Sen whose ideals Lesley supports. The book is beautifully atmospheric, I love Asia and I could imagine the places as they were described, the bustling streets, the beautiful mansions, the beaches and the steaming tropical weather.

Briefly, Lesley has always been a faithful wife until she makes a discovery that changes her forever. She also finds out that a close female friend is in serious trouble and she vows to stand by her. Meanwhile, Maugham has a shock letter which will change his life. When Lesley decides to reveal all to Maugham she knows that her revelations may end up in his books, affecting all those she names.

Covering so many issues of the time the books deals with homosexuality, class, mixed race relationships and infidelity. Maugham’s visit to Penang and the book of short stories he wrote at that time, The Casuarina Tree, are the basis of much of the plot - but which came first the chicken or the egg? A lovely read where fiction merges seamlessly with fact to make a for a haunting book full of fascinating characters. A wonderful book.