Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Excerpt from The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

The House of Doors

by Tan Twan Eng
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • Readers' Rating (4):
  • First Published:
  • Oct 17, 2023, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2024, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

About this Book

Print Excerpt

Prologue

Lesley

Doornfontein, South Africa, 1947

A story, like a bird of the mountain, can carry a name beyond the clouds, beyond even time itself. Willie Maugham said that to me, many years ago.

He has not appeared in my thoughts in a long time, but as I gaze at the mountains from my stoep on this autumn morning I can hear his thin, dry voice, his diction precise, correct, like everything else about him. In my memory I see him again, on his last night in our old house on the other side of the world, the two of us on the verandah behind the house, talking quietly, the full moon a coracle of light adrift above the sea. Everyone else in the house had already retired to bed. When morning came he sailed from Penang, and I never saw him again.

Ten thousand days and nights have drifted down the endless river since that evening. I live on the shores of a different sea now, a sea of silent stone and sand.

Half an hour earlier I was finishing my breakfast on the stoep when I noticed, on the ridge below, a familiar figure pedalling up the steep and dusty dirt road. I followed him with my eyes as he came over the rise and coasted down the short, poplar-lined driveway. Reaching the stoep he dismounted from his bicycle and propped it against its kickstand.

'Goeie more, Mrs Hamlyn,' he called out.

'Morning, Johan.'

He took out a parcel from his saddlebag, came onto the stoep and handed it to me. The parcel was wrapped in heavy brown paper and secured with two loops of twine, but I could tell that it was a book. Robert had been dead nearly six years now, but his post – catalogues and gifts of books from antiquarian booksellers in London, newsletters from his clubs – continued to trickle its way here long after I had informed the senders of his death.

'It's not for Mr Hamlyn,' said Johan. 'It's for you.'

'Oh?' I patted around my pockets for my reading glasses, put them on and squinted at the name typed on the parcel: Mrs Lesley C.Hamlyn.

For a moment or two I continued to stare at my own name. Except for the monthly letter from my son in London, I couldn't remember when last I had received any post addressed to me.

Johan pointed to the stamps. 'Funny-looking bird.'

'It's a hornbill,' I said. The bird's large, curved beak and heavy, bony quiff gave it a comical appearance. It perched on a branch above the words 'B.M.A. MALAYA'. 'Keep them for me?' I blinked at him. 'What? Oh. Yes, of course.' I put the package down on the table. 'Cup of tea, Johan?'

He shook his head. 'Full bag of mail today.' He turned to go, but I stopped him. 'Wait, Johan.' I hurried inside the house and returned a moment later with a small paper bag. 'Some koeksusters for you.'

'Baie dankie! Yours are the best, even better than Tannie Elsie's.'

'You'd better not let her hear that.'

'Ja, she's still sore you won best melktert at the kerk basaar. She told my mother you shouldn't even be allowed to enter the competition.'

Even after twenty-five years there were still some people in the district who saw me as an outsider.

Johan was looking at me, a slightly worried expression on his face. He nodded at the package he had brought me. 'I hope it's not bad news?'

I did not answer him. I watched him as he pedalled away and disappeared down the road. Returning to the table, I sat down, drew the parcel towards me and examined it. There was no return address, but the postmarks, smudged like aged tattoos, told me that it had been mailed from Penang sometime in September 1946. The tangle of overlapping addresses by different hands had somehow managed to pick up my wind-blown spoor: the package had been sent to Robert's old chambers in London, before being forwarded to our solicitor in Cape Town and, almost half a year after it had been posted from Penang, it had found me on this sheep farm fifteen miles outside Beaufort West.

Excerpted from The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. Copyright © 2023 by Tan Twan Eng. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Sun Yat-sen

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    From the bestselling author of I Was Anastasia comes a historical mystery inspired by 18th-century midwife Martha Ballard, who investigates a shocking murder.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Beast of the North Woods
    by Annelise Ryan

    When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature.

  • Book Jacket

    Harlem Rhapsody
    by Victoria Christopher Murray

    The extraordinary story of the woman who ignited the Harlem Renaissance.

  • Book Jacket

    Three Days in June
    by Anne Tyler

    A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Who Said...

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

D to T N

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.