Oh, that’s just Monty,’ said Robert. ‘He showed up here a few years ago. Takes his daily dip in the Warburtons’ pool next door. So what’s on the cards today, old chap? Lesley’ll be delighted to show you the sights.’ Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings-and the freedom to travel with Gerald. His career deflating, his health failing, Maugham arrives at Cassowary House in desperate need of a subject for his next book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage more duplicitous than it first appears. Maugham suspects an affair, and, learning of Lesley's past connection to the Chinese revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, decides to probe deeper. But as their friendship grows and Lesley confides in him about life in the Straits, Maugham discovers a far more surprising tale than he imagined, one that involves not only war and scandal but the trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder. It is, to Maugham, a story worthy of fiction. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. Lesley missed her garden — the trees she planted - flowers, shrubs, their high ceilings in Cassowary House, her old busy life of the different committees she was on, but with time, she did adjust realizing she no longer cared about those things.

Quiet, lazy days on … the beach, that’s all I want,’ Willie said. ‘I’ve piles … of books to read, and Gerald hasn’t fully recovered yet. He needs his rest, lots … of it.’The characters, unfortunately, feel a bit hollow, or like playthings for the author to dictate his story through; perhaps because Maugham is a real person and thus there's only so much creative liberty Eng can take with him—or maybe because the emphasis on playing intertextually with Maugham's works overshadowed Eng's own themes and explorations. Ironically, the one character who felt the most intriguing, Ethel, is the one we only hear about occasionally and mostly at the end of the novel. The way Tan Twan Eng deftly weaves in some elements of Maugham's style so that it almost sounds like a pastiche and adds some elements from Maugham's books, some of the realia, is just extraordinary. Since I've started The Casuarina Tree, a collection of Maugham's short stories set mostly in Malaysia, which inspired The House of Doors, I appreciate Tan Twan Eng's talent even more. Not just talent. How much work, time and research must have gone into this novel and, at the same time, it seems so effortless, so understated, so smooth, so subtle.

The book does fulfill one of my desires of historical fiction, which is to teach me something I didn’t know. In this case, it’s Sun Yat-sen’s rebellion against the Qing dynasty. It's hard to imagine that Maugham traveled as much as he did, especially in Europe and Asia, and that he knows so many people, especially in South Asia. He is well known. His ability to describe characters and the drama of their lives is fascinating, and his incisive look at the power of people is mirrored in their interactions. Eng's characters are gently drawn and yet they could not be stronger nor more well defined.

Also, do a Google photo search on each of the particulars to familiarize oneself with what everybody looks like (it enhances one's enjoyment!) - and listen to this (which is a recurring musical motif throughout): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32vl.... Told from both perspectives, the plot envisions Maugham’s visit in 1921. He has just discovered that a poor investment decision has left him pretty much broke. He’s desperate to write his next book and is searching for a topic. Lesley tells him the story of her friend, who was convicted of murdering a man with whom she was having an affair. The fact that it’s told by Lesley to Willie reduces some of the impact, being told as a secondhand account. An amazingly transporting novel about love, desire, and duty, The House of Doors does what the very best stories do -- it draws us into many fascinating worlds at once: The British Empire's incursions into South-East Asia; the secret life of one of England's finest writers; a forgotten murder trial . . . Weaving all this together with great skill and power, bringing the reader a surfeit of pleasure, Tan Twan Eng also teaches us a crucial lesson: never trust a writer.” ―Jonathan Lee, author of THE GREAT MISTAKE and HIGH DIVE

Ai, that’s not funny, Bernard,’ his wife said. ‘Coincidentally, our GP in the dorp disappeared that same morning,’ Bernard continued. ‘Left his wife behind. Neither hair nor hide of him has ever been seen again.’ In the 20's Maugham was an actual well known author and this story is based on many of the truths of his life. An additional focus of the story is that of Lesley's friend Ethel who is incarcerated after she shoots a man attempting to rape her. Tan was born in Penang, Malaysia. The Garden of Evening Mists won the Man Asian Literary Prize 2013 and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Within these layers of the storyline are many different strands. There is the intrigue of the murder trial, insight into Maugham’s life and Sun Yat Sen’s, and the lives of Europeans, Straits Chinese, Malays and others in Penang at this time. The writing is excellent, although I occasionally found descriptive passages a little overdone and convoluted, and it held my interest completely throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the only reason it’s not a 5 star read for me is due to very minor issues such as this. Maugham is a here a passive character; he is a vessel through which we get to listen to Lesley Hamlyn’s secrets from her past. The writer proves to be an excellent listener, which prompts the disillusioned Lesley to share confidences about events surrounding the visit of the Chinese revolutionary, Sun Yat-sen to Penang and a famous murder. Both the murder and the visit were real events, although the former took place in 1911. The author puts them together to serve his plotting objectives, to positive results, I think.W. Somerset Maugham, the famous novelist was an old friend of Robert’s. Robert and Lesley call him Willie. I liked some of his stories,’ said Helena. ‘But “Rain”’ – she made a face – ‘I’ll never forget that one.’ The House of Doors is partly a biographical novel, based on a few facts of William Somerset Maughm's life. It depicts the creative process, how literature and reality intersect, and the clash between mundane everyday life and the writer's creativity. An interesting coincidence: I was thinking how Colm Tóibín’s route in his biography of Thomas Mann, The Magician, was different, and in the evening, I read in The Guardian his enthusiastic opinion on this book: The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng is fascinating, engrossing and has given me infinite pleasure. I couldn't agree more. The House of Doors, by Tan Twan Eng, is a work of historical fiction set in the British colony of Penang, Malaya during three time periods, the earliest in 1910 and the next in 1921. A prologue and postscript are set on a farm in South Africa, far from the primary activity of the novel. The lie of each relationship exposes its suffocating function as an instrument of establishment soft-power. Lesley, clever, refined and bored, is also drawn to the egalitarian spirit of the Chinese political movement that intends to overthrow the imperial Manchu dynasty.