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Title details for The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng - Available

The House of Doors

by Tan Twan Eng
David Oakes
Audiobook
2 of 4 copies available
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2 of 4 copies available
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER, NPR, SLATE, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE WORK A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE From the bestselling author of The Garden of Evening Mists, a spellbinding novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redemption. The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When "Willie" Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one. 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. 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 17, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781639731954
      • File size: 324116 KB
      • Duration: 11:15:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 7, 2023
      Tan (The Garden of Evening Mists) explores the power of storytelling in this intoxicating outing. At Cassowary House in Penang, Malaya, in 1921, Lesley Hamlyn prepares to receive “Willie” Somerset Maugham, the famed English writer and friend of her husband, Robert. Increasingly drawn to Willie—who is desperate for new material for a novel to stave off bankruptcy—Lesley gradually unburdens herself to the author, unearthing a trove of long-buried secrets ranging from the personal to the political. Tan seamlessly merges fact and fiction as he explores the underlying tensions in both Lesley and Willie’s marriages, as well as Lesley’s intriguing involvement with the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat Sen during his 1910 sojourn in Penang. A side plot involves Lesley’s friend Ethel Proudlock, another real-life figure, who stood trial for the murder of her fellow Englishman in Kuala Lumpur. As in Tan’s other works, the narrative dwells on memory and loss, its lush, dreamy prose evoking the bygone days of colonial pre-WWII British Malaya amid musings on life’s ephemeral nature, while never losing its eye for injustice: “For a woman to be remembered,” Lesley laments, “she has to either be a queen or a whore. But for those of us who lead normal, mundane lives, who will remember us?” This is a stunner. Agent: Jessica Woollard, David Higham Assoc.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      One of this year's finest novels is also one of its most satisfying audiobooks. Set in colonial Malaya (now part of Malaysia), it marks this author's third nomination for Britain's Booker Prize. These narrators convey the full grace and subtlety of his prose. David Oakes narrates the chapters in the third person, which depict author W. Somerset Maugham's visit to Penang in 1921 with his secretary and lover, Gerald Haxton. In alternating chapters, Louise-Mai Newberry narrates a first-person account by his hostess Lesley Hamlyn, which describes a 1911 murder trial that will become Maugham's story "The Letter." Lesley has her own story, which unfolds in counterpoint to the one she tells. Both narrators are outstanding as they convey atmosphere, character, and the author's postcolonial perspective with confidence and sensitivity. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from March 1, 2024

      In Eng's (The Garden of Evening Mists) Booker-longlisted historical novel based on real events, "Willie" Somerset Maugham's need for escape and inspiration sends him to Penang in 1921. There he meets Lesley Hamlyn, his friend Robert's perfect hostess of a wife. Though Lesley doesn't approve of Maugham's extramarital gay affairs, they begin to understand each other, leading Lesley to reveal secrets about her fellow countrypeople--murder, affairs, and ties to China's revolutionaries. Louise-Mai Newberry and David Oakes narrate, with Oakes voicing Maugham's chapters and Newberry Lesley's. The narrators don't give each other's characters the same voices, but both pull listeners completely into the prose. The real Maugham stuttered, and both narrators portray his disfluencies respectfully. As Lesley becomes Maugham's muse, they explore the complications of love, gender, sexuality, and class, plus the trap of keeping up appearances. Listeners should be aware that the novel uses some of the racist language that would have been part of the vocabularies of British people on the colonized Malay Peninsula. VERDICT A riveting yet sedately paced novel about inspiration and identity, sure to be enjoyed by those who like Kathleen Rooney's Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey or Juliette Fay's City of Flickering Light.--Matthew Galloway

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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