China Book Club: 'The House of Doors' by Tan Twan Eng

Long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2023, this is less a China book than one in which China constantly looms in the background. Set in the early twentieth century in what is now Malaysia when it was a British colony, 'The House of Doors' contains William Somerset Maugham and Dr Sun Yat-sen as fictionalised characters.

Somerset Maugham was one of the most successful authors of his day, but in this story he is fresh off a financial misfortune and desperate for a comeback. 'The House of Doors' contains the sensational murder trial of Ethel Proudlock, which made headlines around the world in its day. Somerset Maugham would later turn it into his short story 'The Letter', which was eventually made into a movie with Bette Davies.

Meanwhile Sun Yat-sen is paying visits as he tries to revolutionise his beloved country.