The House of Doors

The House of Doors is a 2023 historical novel by Tan Twan Eng, published by Bloomsbury Publishing. The novel, set in the 1920s British colony of the Federated Malay States, tells the stories of the local residents and visitors, including a fictionalized version of William Somerset Maugham.

The novel was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and listed among notable fiction works in 2023 by The Washington Post and The Financial Times.

Narrative
The book tells of a fictionalized account of William Somerset Maugham's travels through the Federated Malay States in the 1920s. While in Penang, Maugham and Gerald Haxton, who is ostensibly his travelling secretary but is actually his lover, stay with Maugham's friend Robert Hamlyn. Robert and his wife Lesley are British expatriots living in the Federated Malay States. While staying with the Hamlyns, Maughan develops a friendship with Lesley.

This eventually leads Lesley to confide in Maugham, revealing many personal secrets which would eventually become subjects of Maugham's literary works. This includes Lesley's dissatisfaction with her marriage with Robert. Robert Hamlyn, suffering from the disabling effects of chemical warfare from the First World War, is pressuring his wife, much to her dismay, to move to South Africa where he believes the less humid climate will allow his wounds to heal. Lesley also finds out about her husband's infidelity. Earlier, Lesley told Maugham about her affair with Arthur, a member of Sun Yat-sen's Chinese revolutionary party, when he was in Malaysia to raise funds for the campaign. Lesley felt justified in engaging in the invigorating affair with her true love after learning of her own husband's infidelity. And Lesley also tells Maugham of her friend Ethel Proudlock, who was tried for murder in 1911 after killing a man who she claimed had tried to rape her.

Reception
Writing for The Guardian in a mixed review, critic Xan Brooks stated: "Sun, in his way, is as much a storyteller as Maugham. But his revolutionary adventure feels undercooked and imported. We view it via Lesley, the white colonial wife, and her vision of events is partial and obscured." Brooks also stated that the eclectic storylines in the novel sometimes reduce the overall quality, stating "The sheer weight of its interests sometimes slows it down".

Writing for NPR, Heller McAlpin described the work as "a paean to the art of transforming life experiences into literature". With McAlpin further commending Tan's ambitious creativity in interpreting Maugham's works in a new literary piece. Writing for The Financial Times, Michael Arditti describes the novel as "expertly constructed, tightly plotted and richly atmospheric."

The novel was named one of the "50 notable works of fiction" for 2023 by The Washington Post and among the "best books of 2023" in fiction by The Financial Times. It was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, whose listing describes the novel as a "masterful novel of public morality and private truth" which "examines love and betrayal under the shadow of Empire."