'Winning would mean much, much more than something personal for me: no writer from Malaysia – no writer from South-East Asia, and, in fact, no writer from Asia – has ever won the Booker Prize,' says Tan in his Booker Prize website interview that accompanies his longlisted book 'The House Of Doors'. Photo: The Star/Low Lay Phon
Authors – they’re just like us.
Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng, 51, whose latest novel The House of Doors has been longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, confides that he, like many of us, has had to fake it to make it.
“I type on a laptop because it just looks more official to me, more real, more professional – I convince myself that I’m doing actual work and not just messing about,” he shares in an interview published on the Booker Prizes website.
The House of Doors is a historical fiction set in 1920s Penang and delves into the lives of lawyer Robert Hamlyn and his wife Lesley, and their friendship with writer William Somerset Maugham.
Maugham, known for his plays, novels and short stories, actually existed in real life and was among the most notable writers of his era.
Penang-born Tan left no stone unturned in his research for the book.
“I read most of his short stories, paying close attention to those that I knew were autobiographical. I read his essays and journals. I read many of his novels, and I’m sure I read every Maugham biography that’s ever been published.
“I read books by and about his contemporaries, mining them for any mention of their interactions with Maugham. He was a fascinating man: world-famous and immensely wealthy, but at the same time also, due to his lifelong stammer, insecure, shy, prickly and sensitive. But most of all he was a supreme storyteller.”
Despite all the research, Tan mentions in his Booker Prize interview that when it came to writing actual people into his book, he found it very constrictive.
“It’s much, much harder to write about real people. To start with, I had to bring them back to life again, make them authentic and convincing.
“The direction of my story, the scenes I set, the interactions between these characters also had to be subservient to their characteristics and personalities; they had to be emotionally and psychologically true. I felt much more free writing about Lesley and Robert and the other fictional characters.”
Worth the wait
It’s been 11 years since the release of his last book, The Garden of Evening Mists, which won the 2012 Man Asian Literary Prize and 2013 Walter Scott Prize For Historical Fiction, and was on the 2012 Man Booker Prize shortlist.
In 2019, The Garden of Evening Mists was adapted to the big screen to positive reviews and won regional film awards, such as Best Makeup & Costume Design at the 56th Golden Horse Awards and Best Feature Film at the 2020 Asian Academy Creative Awards. The film's release led to renewed interest in the book, introducing it to a new generation of readers.
Tan is known for being a perfectionist in his work, rewriting countless times to ensure that the final work is as near perfect as possible, but even he didn’t anticipate that it would take him as long as it did to finish The House of Doors.
“There were various reasons for this lengthy period of time: I had a knee injury which did not improve with surgery. I put aside another novel I had just started working on, as I felt it was too big, too demanding a writing project.
“Instead, I decided to write this novel, something which I envisaged would be easier to accomplish. Imagine my dismay when I realised that it was evolving into a complex and complicated story,” says Tan.
It helps that at least Tan knows how he wants his stories to end.
“I always know the ending, although getting there is another matter entirely. With this novel, I even knew what the concluding sentence would be; every other word and sentence preceding it was directed, like an arrow fired from a bow, towards that final sentence.”
So far, The House of Doors has proven to be worth the time and effort – it currently holds a score of 4.3 out of 5 on Goodreads.
Tan, who is based in Cape Town, South Africa, also enjoyed whirlwind trip home to Malaysia, with book lovers here packing out the venues for his public appearances, including a curated book event at the George Town Festival last month and also a series of major bookstore appearances in Kuala Lumpur.
Third time’s the charm?
Not only is The House of Doors Tan's third book, it is also his third to be nominated for the Booker Prize. When asked how it feels to have had all his books nominated, Tan answers jokingly, “I told a friend recently, ‘I should stop writing now, to preserve that 100 percent strike rate.’
“It feels just as exciting as the first and second time, because each book is different, and each longlist is different. But there’s more intense social media attention now, compared to when my first novel was nominated.”
Touching on what it would mean if he were to win the prize this year, Tan says, “Winning would mean much, much more than something personal for me: no writer from Malaysia – no writer from South-East Asia, and, in fact, no writer from Asia – has ever won the Booker Prize.
“When people talk about ‘Asian Writing’ and ‘Asian Literature’, they’re talking about China, Japan, Korea. South-East Asia is often barely even acknowledged. Winning would create a wider, more global awareness of writers and literature from my small but culturally rich corner of the world,” he adds.
The Booker Prize 2023 shortlist of six books will take place on Sept 21. The winner of the £50,000 (RM295,114) prize will be announced at an event in London on Nov 26.
Read the full interview with Tan on the Booker Prizes website here.
