It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer and his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay.

Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more Lesley’s friendship with Willie grows, the more clearly she see him as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self.

As Willie prepares to leave and face his demons, Lesley confides secrets of her own, including how she came to know the charismatic Dr Sun Yat Sen, a revolutionary fighting to overthrow the imperial dynasty of China. And more scandalous still, she reveals her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts – a tragedy drawn from fact, and worthy of fiction.

Having read Tan Twan Eng other two books I was really looking forward to this. It has been over 10 years since The Garden of the Evening mist came out.
He really writes the most beautiful books and this is another masterpiece. The story is multi-layered, a lot of it is based on true events and it's a fascinating read, full of intrigue and secrets.

https://quizlit.org/book-of-the-month-october-2023 ( )

Beautifully written story based on novelist "Willie" Somerset Maugham, who visits an old friend, Robert, and his wife, Lesley, in Malaysia, with his secretary, Gerald. He is bemoaning losing money, and poor book sales. Lesley tells him of her friend, Edith, accused of murdering a man who had sexually attacked her, and the ensuing trial. Lesley also tells of her affair with Arthur.
The story tells of all the secrets that the men were living, not able to openly live as homosexuals, and marrying women to be their beards. Lesley's marriage is also a sham, so she finds solace in Arthur's arms.
Set in the early 20th century, it is based on actual events.
I loved the writing. ( )

Can’t believe there was an Andie MacDowell “Is it raining? I hadn’t noticed” moment in a Booker novel. Anyone who writes a scene in which a couple has their pivotal romantic moment in a rainstorm, wet hair and clothes plastered to skin, should be shot. Ok not really. Exiled from the artistic community perhaps.

Despite that, not too bad. Not too great either, for me. ( )

This is a well paced, intriguing story which takes place on British Penang in the early 20th century some years before and after WWI. W. Somerset Maugham's visit in 1921 elicits the tale of the continuing but failed marriage of his hosts a decade earlier, the wife's involvement with Sun Yat-sen's efforts at revolution and as a character witness in the first trial of a European woman accused of murder. It is a story of people pinched into the constrained social rolls, wives of unloving husbands, men who prefer men but marry to deflect the stigma, expatriates who put their "origin" country above where they live, individuals born and raised in the east but expected to exemplify English values. The truth which is a fundamental casualty of their lives leaks imperfectly into Maugham's stories. For all of its virtues, I was not much moved by the characters and the ending felt a bit tinny after the oboe tones of the preceding realism. ( )

This novel stirred a range of emotions, and also offered an insight into an area and period of history of which I am lamentably ignorant. The story is principally set in Penang in 1921, although it includes flashbacks to a few years earlier, and is mainly narrated by Lesley Hamlyn. She had been born in Penang and had married Robert who had established a thriving legal practice in the colony. In 1921, the Hamlyns paly host to celebrated English author, William Somerset Maugham, at that point nearing the zenith of his fame, having recently had four of his plays staged concurrently in London’s West End, a feat never previously achieved by any writer. Somerset Maugham is not travelling alone. He is accompanied by Gerald Haxton, ostensibly his secretary, but actually his clandestine lover. Lesley’s memories are interspersed with third person narratives following Maugham’s thoughts and deed in the colony.

Lesley’s recollections of 1910 bring a different focus as she recalls her encounters with the revolutionary Sun Yat Sen and his supporters, who were then touring Penang with a view to tapping rich Chinese ex-pats for funds to support their insurrection against the Chinese Emperor. If I felt somewhat ignorant of Somerset Maugham, I was hopelessly at a loss over Sun Yat Sen, and was intrigued to learn more about him.

I found this book both engaging and enlightening, although I did feel slightly disappointed that the writer didn’t convey more of the atmosphere of 1920s Penang. As a backdrop to the action of the book, it might almost have been everywhere. From my limited experience of Somerset Maugham’s writing (principally through the few short stories that I have encountered), he was able to evoke a strong feeling of his settings. Indeed, although very little of the story occurs in South Africa, the environment there is conveyed far more clearly than that of Penang.

Still, that is a minor cavil, and I found the book very enjoyable. ( )