The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in George Town, Penang. Author Tan Twan Eng says there’s a story behind every door in the city.
Matthew Williams-Ellis/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Tan Twan Eng’s latest novel, The House of Doors, is a decade-shifting epic that delves into tragedy, cultural dissonance and memory loss.
Who is he? Twan Eng is an award-winning Malaysian novelist known for The Gift of Rain and The Garden of Evening Mists, and for setting his stories in his home country.
- His latest novel was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize.
What’s going on? Twan Eng’s latest novel, The House of Doors, is a historical exploration of stories that all share the risk of being forgotten.
- At the center of the novel is the island of Penang, nestled off the west coast of Malaysia, which Twang Eng calls home for part of the year.
- The plot revolves around a few historical events that took place in the early 20th century.
- It interweaves the stories of the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen visiting Penang at the same time as British writer W. Somerset Maugham, and the trial of a married British woman accused of killing her lover.
What’s he saying? Twan Eng joined All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro to discuss the inspiration behind the novel, and the care he took with the real life legacies of his characters.
On what it’s like to walk through the streets of George Town, Penang’s main city.
It really feels like you’re walking in Penang 100 years ago. The old shop houses are there. They’ve got the original names of the streets. A lot of the tradesmen and craftsmen are still working there, carrying on the…
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