Books & Biscotti (Book Review) with Cathy Tile
Thursday, September 12, 2024 • 9 Elul 5784
1:00 PM - 2:30 PMTemple Emanu-El or Online
by Tan Twan Eng
and online via Zoom.
Registration is closed.
Free for Temple Members | $15 for guests (online & pre-registration)
$20 cash-only at the door (No pre-registration)
Zoom link and password will be emailed after you register
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
From the bestselling, Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Garden of Evening Mists, a spellbinding novel about love and betrayal, colonialism and revolution, storytelling and redemption.
The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one.
Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings-and the freedom to travel with Gerald. His career deflating, his health failing, Maugham arrives at Cassowary House in desperate need of a subject for his next book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage more duplicitous than it first appears. Maugham suspects an affair, and, learning of Lesley's past connection to the Chinese revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, decides to probe deeper. But as their friendship grows and Lesley confides in him about life in the Straits, Maugham discovers a far more surprising tale than he imagined, one that involves not only war and scandal but the trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder. It is, to Maugham, a story worthy of fiction.
A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow.
From Amazon.ca
For more information on the book and the author, please CLICK HERE to visit the publisher's website (Bloomsbury).
Cathy Tile worked in the Toronto and York Region Boards of Education. She is one of the founders of the Living Lecture Series and is co-author of the book Toronto's Cook's Marketplace. Cathy has worked tirelessly for CAMH, UJA Youth Leadership and initiated the establishment of the Jewish Information Service and Tel Aide.
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If you have any questions or need to discuss the program fee, please contact Carli at carli@templeemanuel.ca or leave a message at 416-449-3880 ext. 215; your call will be returned within one business day.
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Don't miss our next review! November 7 @ 1:00pm - Elaine Newton will review The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Click here to register.
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