Tan Twan Eng, a Malaysian novelist best known for his 2012 book The Garden Of Evening Mists, which was shortlisted for the Man-Booker Prize, is unlikely to disappoint with his latest novel, The House Of Doors, which features characters and events drawn from history. 

In the prologue, we meet the widowed Lesley Hamlyn on a sheep farm in the South African veldt in 1947. Lesley accepts a delivery of an inscribed book, written by an old friend of her husbands who became a close confidant during his stay when the couple were living in the Straits Settlements of Penang. Flicking through, the writing immediately transports her 1921 Malaya. Thereafter, Twan Eng similarly transports the reader. 

Some novels use plot to inspire rapid page-turning, and The House Of Doors has plenty of salacious, thrilling plot points in its arsenal – including a murder case, an illegal and passionate homosexual romance, and a revolutionary fighting to overthrow the Chinese dynasty. What is perhaps more compelling is Twan Eng’s descriptive language and vivid imagery, which illustrates the landscape in which the novel takes place. With such an intricately painted backdrop, no wonder the characters then burst off the page and into the reader’s heart.