April book meetup: The House of Doors
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For April, our theme is crime literature (in keeping with the Norwegian tradition of påskekrim). This time, we will be reading a book in which crime is in the background: "The House of Doors" by Tan Twan Eng.
The book imagines the backstory for W. Somerset Maugham's short story (and later play), "The Letter"* about a woman accused of murder in colonial era Singapore. The Booker Prize committee "The House of Doors" as a "masterful novel of public morality and private truth [which] examines love and betrayal under the shadow of Empire".
* For those interested, "The Letter" can be read here: https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/maughamws-completeshortstories03/maughamws-completeshortstories03-00-e.html#theletter