The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser

• State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
• State Library of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
  

The place is Ceylon, the time the 1930s. Set amid tea plantations and jungle, decay, corruption and the backwash of empire, this gripping nuanced novel has a pitch-perfect ear for the comedy and a sharp eye for the tragedy of a world at the end of its tether.

Sam Obeysekere - 'obey' by name and by nature - is a Ceylonese lawyer, a perfect product of empire. His family once had wealth and influence but starts to crack open as political change comes to the island, and Sam's glamorous father dies leaving gambling debts. But the Obeysekeres' troubles reach back into the past, when a baby was found dead in his cot. And at the heart of the novel is the Hamilton Case, a murder scandal that shakes the upper echelons of island society. Sam's involvement in it makes his name but sets his life on course for disappointment.

Full of irresistible characters - Sam himself, a triumph of ambivalence, resentment and pathos; his beautiful, unstable sister; his flamboyant mother Maud - this is a sinuous, constantly surprising tale. It paints a haunting picture of the end of an era, suffused with 'the unbearable thought that everything might have been different...'

Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was 14. Having studied French at Melbourne University, she spent a year teaching in Montpellier before doing an MA in Paris. She has worked for many years as an editor at Lonely Planet Publications and was responsible for setting up their French series. Her first novel, The Rose Grower, was published to great acclaim around the world and was a critical and commercial success in Australia. The Hamilton Case was shortlisted for the SA Premier's Fiction Award, the Victorian Premier's Award, and was announced the Regional Winner of the 2004 Commonwealth Prize.