I Read Books: The Chinese Love Pavilion
Paul Scott went on to write The Jewel In The Crown Quartet and later won the Booker prize for Staying On a fifth book loosely related to that quartet, all about British India. This slightly earlier work is also concerned with India and the British, but also Malaya and the results of WW2. My copy also has this somewhat titillating cover which, while not totally misleading, when combined with the title does emphasise one aspect more than the others. Also I couldn't find it online so this is the actual cover including the second hand price of 3/6.
Our narrator Brent has had second thoughts about staying in India but is convinced to stay on by Saxby. Saxby has a deep understanding of India and the people there (British as well as the various Indians). However he is also maddeningly elusive, both literally and philosophically.
Then the war comes, and as it come to a close Brent, having been injured in Burma, is sent to Malaya to try and bring Saxby in. He has joined up with one (or more) guerrilla bands and may be fighting a private war against collaborators.
Sent to the outpost where he was last seen, the titular Chinese Love Pavilion is a building behind the headquarters, and is where Brent meets and falls in love Teena Chang, a Eurasian prostitute.
Brent thinks he may have found a way to live with the contradictions, of love and war, of jungle and plain, of Britain and Malaya. But the war isn’t over for everyone.
Read This: For an extended meditation on love, war and living in colonial India and Malaya
Don’t Read This: If you want a clear and definitive answer to any of the questions
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