In 'The House of Doors', Tan Twan Eng tells a story filled with betrayal, secrets and politics.

In Penang, Lesley and Robert Hamlyn live a very traditional life and marriage. He is a lawyer, and she plays the part of society hostess. However, his lungs are damaged from the war, and their marriage has not been what was promised by either of them. Gradually the reasons for this are uncovered. Lesley reveals the couples secrets to Willie Somerset Maugham, who has visited the couple with his lover/secretary, just as investments he has made have gone bad and as a result he desperately needs to write another successful novel. Interwoven into this story are elements of real life, including the murder of William Steward by Ethel Proudlock (a story Somerset Maugham really did fictionalise), and Sun Yat Sen a real life Chinese Revolutionary.

I loved 'The Garden of Evening Mists' and had high expectations for this novel. Initially, I wasn't sure if 'The House of Doors' lived up to it, but once I reached the second part of the book I was completely hooked. Tan Twan Eng writes beautifully, and the emotions conjured up during the second half of the novel resulted in me experiencing severe 'book grief' when I reached the end. I would recommend this.

The House of Doors is a stunning read. Having lived in South Africa many years ago, it brought back many happy memories for me. It begins in 1947 in South Africa where the widowed Lesley Hamlyn, has lived for over twenty years. She receives a parcel which contains a copy of Willie Somerset Maugham's latest book which brings back memories from 1921 when Willie and his secretary stayed with her and her husband Robert, in Penang, Malaysia.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for the opportunity to read and review Tan Twang Eng’s astonishing new novel.

This was my first Tan Twan Eng and I liked the formulative nature of it all. The themes of morality, love, betrayal and morality take us back to the 1920s with a stunning in-depth recreation of the time period of Penang and Cassowary House. Sun Yat Sen, a real-life character - is the book's topic, a Chinese revolutionary, and it paints a picture that I just haven't seen told all that often before. That's my fault for not reading much into Chinese history as I should be.

It feels like a different perspective and a homage to Maugham and explores an attitude of a lost century to homosexuality and adultery, the male ego and positions of power. Its themes are rich, multi-layered; Maugham's personality comes through here in the book and I'm interested to actually read something by Maugham now. I liked how this approached the book in a similiar way to Colm Tobin's The Magician - taught and aloof, and William Boyd's The Romantic as two recent reads. Tan Twan Eng is a gifted writer, that much is clear; and the topic makes for a fascinating case study.

The evocation of the landscape and culture of Penang is wholly immersive and you really get into the world like it's the only one that matters when you're reading it. Spending half of its time setting up paying off with a mystery in the back end; The House of Doors will keep you suckered in and there until the end. A highlight - able to tell a story of a real figure just as accurately as a biography.

You know it's a five star read, when you're still talking about it weeks after finishing it and recommending it to friends. Historical fiction at it's best following a well-to-do couple, Lesley and Robert Hamlyn and the expat lives mainly lived out in Penang, Malaysia in the 1920s. An era when social standing and connections was of prime importance, Willie Somerset Maugham, the author, struggling with his writing and own identity descends on the couple with his lover and makes Lesley question her marriage and her future. I enjoyed this saga played out with the backdrop of the Chinese revolution and look forward to reading another by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley the author and publishers for an ARC of this book

Tan Twan Eng’s only two previous novels (“The Gift of Rain” (2007) and “The Garden of Evening Mists” (2012)) were respectively longlisted and shortlisted for the Booker Prize – the latter novel also won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.

So his first novel for 11 years must automatically be in consideration for the 2023 Prize.

The epigraph to the novel is from Somerset Maugham’s literary memoir “The Summing Up” : “Fact and Fiction are so intermingled in my work that now, looking back on it, I can hardly distinguish one from the other” – and that rather conveniently does sum up this novel – a part fact, part fictional retelling of Maugham’s stay in Eng’s native Penang during Maugham (and his younger secretary and lover Gerald Haxton)’s travels in the Federated Malay states in 1921 which (together with a later trip in 1925) provided the inspiration for his short story collection “The Causarina Tree”: this novel effectively setting out a potential inspiration for the story “The Letter” which is based on the real life 1911 murder trial of Ethel Proudlock and which has a key character Leslie.

The novel opens with a Prologue in South Africa in 1947, where the long widowed Lesley Hamlyn moved 25 years previously from their colonial life in Penang in an attempt to prolong the life of her husband Robert whose breathing has been badly affected by a gas attack in World War I (he also suffers from shell shock). She receives a parcel with an old first edition of “The Causarina Tree” and found herself “instantly transported back to Malaya. I felt a heavy tropical heat smothering me, thick and steamy, and the pungent, salty tang of the mudflats at low tide clogged my nostrils.” - something of a challenge that Eng sets himself to achieve the same effect in the reader as for the rest of the novel (other than an Epilogue back in 1947 South Africa) we are in Penang with chapters alternating between Leslie (in the first person) and Maugham (in the third).

The chapters start in 1921 during Maugham (and Haxton)’s stay with his student friend Robert (and Lesley) at their Penang House named after the Causarina tree which dominates its garden. Maugham suffering ill-health and reeling from the loss of his fortune to a bust stockbroker (and the risk to his plans to leave his wife for Gerald) sets down to write a new stories - and gradually gains the confidence of Lesley who takes the opportunity to recount to him what happened to her in 1910, so unburdening herself of secrets (hers and others) that she has kept hidden until now.

This story which then forms a series of 1910 first party chapters (but effectively retold in 1921) have four main elements: the arrest of her friend Ethel and her own involvement in the trial as a character witness; the visit to Penang of the real life exiled Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat Sen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen) and Lesley’s embracing of the cause – even if the cause seems reluctant to embrace her as part of the Western coloniser; her realisation of the truth of her own marriage; her resulting forming of a life defining but entirely clandestine relationship with Arthur – one of Sun Yat Sen’s biggest supporters in Penang and the owner of the eponymous shophouse;

One of the strongest themes of the novel could be said to be the clash of privileges. Lesley challenges both Sun Yat Sen on the misogyny which seems to her to be a tolerated part of his revolutionary aims (including male-only polygamy) – while he in turn scorns the influence fo the English on the Chinese in Malay that should he feels be focused on fighting the terrible regime in their home country, not aspiring to the riches of their coloniser. And even more interestingly debates with Willie on the relative lack of rights in British and Colonial Society of homosexuals (the novel takes part against the repercussions of the Oscar Wilde trial) and married women.

The novel’s other real strength is its ability to rise to the challenge that Eng sets himself – in matching if not exceeding Maugham’s ability to transport the reader to the sights, sounds and scents of Penang. Although related to this, if there is a misstep it is the author’s occasional lapses into having characters (Lesley in particular) think like a dictionary entry when describing for example the local houses or dress.

Storytelling is key to the novel – on the first page Lesley says “A story, like a bird of the mountain, can carry a name beyond the clouds, beyond even time itself. Willie Maugham said that to me, many year ago” and that image and idea recurs throughout the novel; partly as Willie justifies his writing methodology – confessing something of his own weakness and then sitting quietly while others unburden themselves to him, only to use their stories himself for (at the end of the day) making and then restoring his fortune. At the book’s end, Lesley returns to it as she reflects that by in a sense betraying her friend Ethel’s story (although she does not grasp the full truth of that story until years later) to Maugham as it allowed him to immortalise her in writing and later a film.

Overall a novel that is perhaps doing a little too much: part famous writer biography; part examination of the process of telling and writing stories – your own and others; part period and place drama; part historical political fiction; part courtroom murder-trial drama; and (as the characters themselves emphasise) fundamentally a love story. But nevertheless one that will I think linger with the reader.

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.

I really enjoyed this, though not quite as much as The Garden of Evening Mists. I found it slow in places and didn't like the jumping back and forth, although, that said, it was a fascinating account of real events about real people, which were reflected in Maugham's collection of short stories, 'the Casuarina Tree.' The writing was lovely and a very clever idea well pulled off.

Thank you to Netgalley for this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I had heard good things of this novel but it just was not for me. I didn't like the way it was written and feel that the characters could have been better developed than they were. Too much discription of places, objects also.

‘A story carrying a name beyond the clouds’

I have not read anything by the Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng before, and will now, for sure read his two earlier books.

The House of Doors is a most beautifully written, alluring and subtle book

Set in Penang, in 1910, and also in 1921, and, as the opening and closing sections, in South Africa in 1947, told partly as first person narration by Lesley Hamlyn, a somewhat mysterious memsahib, within a somewhat mysterious marriage to her seemingly conventional husband Robert.

Robert is a friend from long ago of the writer Somerset Maugham. Maugham himself was also somewhat mysterious, and had much to hide – at one point he was a spy. He also wrote novels, short stories and plays, often using the lives of people he met on his many travels – including to Malaysia.

This book references a collection of stories written by Maugham. Although Maugham himself, and his life and writing are real, Robert and Lesley and their lives are inventions. Of a kind.

Maugham’s sections of the book are told in the third person.

The structure and layers of this book are beautifully done – and, yes, did remind me, much, of the time and place and style of some of Maugham’s stories.

The characters are all wonderfully layered. Woven through is the story of China itself, and its struggles to free itself from the rule of Emperors. Sun Yat Sen, the Nationalist leader, and first provisional president of the Republic of China, is also woven into this story.

Almost everyone within these pages has something to hide, often, transgressions outside the conventional mores of the times, sometimes crimes and misdemeanours, sometimes political radicalism and a desire for a fairer world.

Dreamlike, tender, and sometimes mystical, Tan Twan Eng weaves so much into this book. It is rich in meaning, and, if you read on to his afterword, and perhaps let your imagination take you onwards to explore some of Maugham’s short stories which are referenced in this book, which come from his book The Casuarina Tree, further delightful revelations about Tan Twan Eng’s rich skilful construction will come to light!

I was delighted to be offered this as a digital ARC for review purposes. Sheer reading pleasure

I loved this book, every page of it. Not only for the absorbing story it tells but also for the way it is told – it is clever, brilliantly constructed and somehow strangely old-fashioned in its narrative style. Most of all however, it is a book that takes its time.

The Epilogue and Prologue take us to a remote sheep farm in South Africa, where Lesley – one of the book’s main protagonists has been living for 25 years. She receives a book by the writer Somerset Maugham – The Casuarina Tree - and finds herself transported back to Malaya / Penang, the place she called home until 1922. Her mind goes back to two weeks in 1921, when the writer had stayed with her and her husband.

The events of these two weeks are told by Lesley and Somerset Maughan in alternating chapters and through their narration we get acquainted with their way of thinking and their life stories. Despite their original animosity towards each other, they develop quite a close relationship that allows Lesley to open up about some of her experiences that have shaped her and her outlook on life.

She does this knowing that Maughan, who is always on the hunt for a good writing material, will most likely use this in one of his books, the very same one she receives many years later in South Africa. What she tells him explores themes like inter-racial relationships, women’s rights, LGBTQ and reflects on the significance of cultural differences – all hugely relevant today.

The fact that the book also reflects on a period of William Somerset Maughan’s life is an extra bonus and adds intrigue. It is however the character of Lesley I found hardest to let go when the book came to its end. I am glad I had a chance to meet her.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Canongate Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The author paints a vivid picture of the melting pot of Malaya at a time when so much is hidden from public view. A multilayered book full of intriguing characters living in a judgemental world. A must read that I highly recommend. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This extraordinarily stunning piece of well researched historical fiction by Tan Twan Eng is probably my favourite read of 2023 so far, a blend of fact and fiction, inhabited by astutely portrayed characters of unusual emotional depth and complexities, primarily set in British colonial Penang in Malaya in 1921 and 1910, dripping with all the inequalities, class divisions, repugnant social norms, expectations and attitudes to women and homosexuality of the time, and the deeply embedded, unacceptable racism directed at the 'natives'. It begins with Lesley Hamlyn, whose husband Robert is dead, her children having long since flown the nest, living on a remote sheep farm in Doomfontein, in South Africa, although she longs for Penang, a home she had left, but it seems out of reach now.

The arrival of a package containing a book by the famous and popular writer W Somerset Maugham, The Casuarina Tree, brings back memories of his 2 week stay, accompanied by his 'secretary' Gerald Haxton, at their home, The Cassowary House, in Penang. He was a good friend of her older lawyer husband, Robert. Willie arrives in poor health, in a failing marriage with Syrie, struggling to write, and shattered by the news that he has lost all his money, which threatens to derail his travelling lifestyle and relationship with Gerald. Lesley makes the momentous decision that could cost her everything, she confides the intimate details of her personal life to Willie, and a period in 1910 that meant so much to her. This documents her time with the charismatic Chinese revolutionary, Dr Sen Yat Wen, inspiring a passion within her that has her helping him in his campaign to overthrow the Chinese dynasty, her affair conducted in the House of Doors, and the scandalous murder trial of her friend, Ethel Proudfoot.

The author paints a richly vibrant and lush picture of the cultural melting pot that is Malaya, with its wide variety of foods, music, and below the radar forbidden relationships that could destroy lives should they become public. The actual House of Doors provides a metaphor of a time where it can be dangerous to be who you are, private lives are hidden behind closed doors, truth cannot afford public scrutiny. This is as true for Lesley as it is for Willie, but is she is prepared for her life to explode? It is well known that Willie bases his stories on real life, but she has a burning inner need for her true self to be recognised. This is a beautiful, atmospheric, multilayered historical read that has the timeless feel of a classic, complicated characters forced to live in a rigid judgemental world, it has an incredible sense of location, it speaks of transcendence, marriage, sexuality, love, loss, betrayal, friendship, home, loyalty, and ends with a glimpse of light, with the doors that had been closed for so many years beginning to creak open. A must read that I cannot recommend highly enough and which deserves to win awards! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and Cannongate Books for a review copy of this novel. I have read Eng’s previous novels and they both lingered in my mind long after I read them, so I was excited to see that after all these years Eng has published another novel. Like his previous novels, this new release is set in Malaya. Once again Eng creates an atmospheric and compellingly vivid portrayal of a place and a community. This time it’s set among the colonial population of Penang in 1921 and a married couple who inhabit it, Robert and Lesley, who are hosting Robert’s long time friend William Somerset Maugham. Somerset Maugham, always one for wheedling out secrets and the past for his own stories, sees a great opportunity in Lesley. He’s certain that like himself, she has deep secrets that the half hidden sorrow in her eyes seem to reflect. Eventually, his prompting gets her to recount the events of ten years before when Sun Yat Sen comes to Penang with his revolutionary goals for China. It’s a time of great awakening for Lesley in many ways and ways that will stay with her forever.

With these two momentous events that occurred in Penang Eng weaves a mesmerising but quiet tale of betrayal, love and loss amid the colourful and vivid background of Penang before the First World War and immediately after. It’s a keen eye that is focused on all aspects of the community, the sordid and colourful and also the people of colour who also inhabit it and how the presence of these colonial people impacted on the community. A novel definitely worth reading.

I must preface this review by stating that I am a huge fan of W. Somerset Maugham's books, even if they are no longer fashionable. The House of Doors is based on real events and is a riveting read of life in the early 1920s in the Straits Settlements of Penang when Maugham and his secretary/lover, Gerald, go to stay with his friend, Robert Hamlyn, a lawyer, and his society hostess wife, Lesley.

Maugham at that time was still unhappily married and had left London to be with Gerald, travelling and writing. While staying with the Hamlyns he suffered from ill health and financial problems. Confined to the house he became friendly with Lesley and learned of her relationship with the charismatic Dr Sun Yet Sen, a Chinese revolutionary and her connection to an English woman on trial for murder in Kuala Lumpur.

I thoroughly enjoyed this well narrated drama of life in the shadow of Empire, worthy of one of Maugham's own books. Thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for the opportunity to read and review The House of Doors.

The House of Doors
by Tan Twan Eng

Set mainly in 1920s Penang, while Malay was still under British rule, this is a layered story of the marriage of Robert Hamlyn, a high flying lawyer, and Lesley, his discontented wife. They receive William Somerset Maugham, the noted English novelist and playwright, and his "secretary" Gerald as guests during their year long tour, which Maugham is hoping will provide him with inspiration for his next work. Over the course of the visit Leslie and Willie strike up a friendship and she regales him with stories of her association with the Tong Meng Hui leader Sun Yat-sen, who is trying to spark a rebellion to overthrow the Ching monarchy in China.

I love the light touch that the author uses to give historical context to this novel. It would have been so easy to have gotten bogged down in the politics of the time. He gives just enough to propel the story, but he doesn't hold back on the colonial lifestyle and the culture clash between British and the indigenous people. Although it is required to illustrate the attitudes of the time, it is difficult to read the racial slurs that were peppered so casually through the dialogue (Half-caste, Chinaman, Coolie, Asiatic) that are considered archaic and offensive today. The classism was so endemic, there are references to those who move in the same circles, speaking with the right accents. Sexism is so laid bare, and the general air of entitlement and double standards is cringy. There's no place in this society for homosexuality, especially with the fate of Oscar Wilde fresh on everyone's mind. The age old solution to marry some unexpecting woman to provide a veneer of respectability didn't always end in success. Maintaining one's reputation and the old Stiff Upper Lip was paramount. It is difficult to romanticise the Raj nowadays, but this is a story with a very strong sense of place. The colours, the tropical climate, the birdsong, the flora, the scents of spice, the fashion, the food, the temples.

Ultimately this is about Lesley and whether or not she can live with deception. Can she find a way to sustain her marriage?

Publication date: 18th May 2023
Thanks to #netgalley and #canongate for the egalley

The House of Doors was a delight from start to finish. This beautifully written novel was a masterpiece of good pacing, plot and weaving together of fiction with interesting pieces of history and real people.

It’s mainly set on the large island of Penang, just off Malaya, now Malaysia. The main character, Lesley, and her lawyer husband Robert, are British but get very involved with the locals and Chinese politics. The novel is mainly set in 1922 with flashbacks to 1910.

In the 1910 timeline, Sun Yat Sen, a (real life) revolutionary who devoted his life to overthrowing the Ching Dynasty, visited Penang and inspired Lesley to get very involved with his cause.

In the 1922 timeline the author William Somerset Maugham is staying with Lesley and Robert. Somerset Maugham is married to Syrie back in England but is doing some extensive travelling with his ‘secretary’ Gerald. Somerset Maugham is keen to write about Sun Yat Sen who hasn’t been back to Penang since 1910. This leads to Lesley telling the author about her friendship with Sun Yat Sen back in 1910 and we learn a lot of the history of Lesley and Robert.

It’s a lovely story - gentle in some ways, but full of action in others which weaves together the people, politics, culture and history of the region. There's also a murder mystery interwoven into the tale. I really enjoyed The House of Doors and it made me want to know more about the works of Somerset Maugham and this period of Chinese history.

I had not heard of Tan Twan Eng but he is certainly on my ‘must be read’ list from now on. With thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Canongate for this eCopy to review

I really enjoyed The House of Doors, it had a wonderful sense of place and the characters were really well described. I was completely drawn in to Lesley's life seen through both her point of view and that of Somerset Maugham. It follows how Lesley learns of her husband's infidelity and how she learns to live with that by supporting Dr Sun Wen, a Chinese revolutionary who is exiled from China and many countries so he keeps travelling to raise awareness of his cause and fundraise to keep his revolution going. Lesley helps translate their pamphlets and whilst doing this she grows closer to Arthur a Doctor who is helping Sun Wen. They start an affair and meet in his family house, the house of doors. When Sun Wen is deported from Penang Arthur goes with him to China and their affair ends. During this time her friend in Kuala Lumpu is charged with murder, Lesley tries her best to help but cannot understand why her friend won't save herself. As the mystery unravels we see how Lesley comes to terms with her life and after Maugham's stay goes with her husband to Africa where the climate is better for his health. However she never gives up hope of being reunited with Arthur

A truly great historical masterpiece, with beautiful prose and how people have both a private and public self, definitely a future classic in the making

Absolutely loved this book. Haunting, beautifully written, woven through decades and continents. Gives a very interesting, seemingly accurate perspective on the lives of British settlers in present-day Malaysia. I always love historical fiction, and this did not disappoint. The characters are beautifully written and layered, and the prose is gorgeous. I look forward to the next work by this author!

Such a shame that this man doesn’t write more!

As with his other books, it is beautifully written and the setting is a character in itself.

Set predominantly in Penang, pre and post WW1. I love the way he references local flora, food and phrases - no footnotes or italics. If you don’t know the word you can look it up.

He was trained as a lawyer, and it shows, every word counts.

This was very good.

4.5 rounded down, but could have gone up.

Thanks to Netgallery for the ARC

This was a beautiful combination of historical and literary fiction that got better the more I read.

Writers of great works are inspired by what they experience in their own lives and while the internet has made it easier to do research in modern times, those who wrote the classics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries relied on stories they were told, their own travels and the people they met. This book has writer Willie Somerset Maugham at its centre, attempting to write his way out of the mess his life has become.

It begins in 1947 with the reminiscences of Lesley Hamlyn who lived most of her life in Penang, Malaysia before migrating to a sheep farm in South Africa about two decades ago. Receiving a copy of Somerset Maugham's latest book triggers her memories of the time in 1921 when she hosted the writer and his secretary Gerald in her home. During the course of his stay, the writer reveals his writing process and his personal financial struggles to Lesley who is putting up a brave facade over her own strained marriage. When she decides to confide in him about the legal trial of a friend who claimed to have killed a man in self defence, Willie senses a way out of his writer's block.

I enjoy stories that are spun around real people and incidents and the theme of unraveling layers of stories also appeals to me. This is a tale that fully portrays the period it is set in - the political scene, misogyny, attitudes to homosexuality, warped ideas of morality and the scrambling to get back to normal life after the ravages of the war. The author has shown the colonial mindset of the English who though settled in Malaysia for years, still hold themselves above the 'natives'.

I loved the direction in which this book went, the bits about History that I gleaned and the wonderful way in which the title of the book fit the narrative.

I definitely want to read the author's other books.