Do you like reading about writers? What does good writing about the act of writing do? And what happens when you write a real writer into a novel? Our guest this month is Tan Twan Eng, who joined us to talk about his third novel The House of Doors. Based around the writer W. Somerset Maugham’s stay on the Island of Penang, in what was then Malaya, in 1921, it's also about the stories he learns from the couple he stays with there, and the interplay between their fact and his fiction. We’ll be talking about the real and imagined writers that we’ve loved in fiction, the art of writing about writing, and the authors we’d most love to read a novel about - enjoy!

Recommendations on the theme, Writing About Writers:

Octavia: Aliens & Anorexia by Chris Kraus

Carrie: Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

General Recommendations:

Octavia: Greek Lessons by Han Kang

Twan: Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

Carrie: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/may-2023-writing-about-writers-with-tan-twang-eng

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Also, very excitingly, O's memoir This Ragged Grace has been selected as the Bookshop.org book of the month for June! So, if you'd like to read it, they're offering all wonderful Literary Friction listeners free shipping and 10% off if you pre-order it from them at the following link, using the code Ragged10: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/this-ragged-grace-a-memoir-of-recovery-and-renewal-octavia-bright/7400323?ean=9781838857462