Tan Twan Eng: 'The House of Doors' in conversation with Preti Taneja

Longlisted for the Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

A Sunday Times Bestseller and a Financial Times, New Statesman, New Yorker and Washington Post Book of the Year.

W. Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of the early twentieth century. But in 1921 he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone wrong. Worse still - he is also struggling to write. His friend Robert Hamlyn offers an escape in the Straits Settlements of Penang, where Robert’s steely wife Lesley learns to see Willie as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self. Join us to discuss one of the most celebrated and moving books of the year.

Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, Malaysia. His debut novel The Gift of Rain was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007. The Garden of Evening Mists won the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 and the 2013 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012 and the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The House of Doors is his third novel. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023 and shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2024.

Preti Taneja is Director of NCLA and Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

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Photograph: Tan Twan Eng © Lloyd Smith