The Hamilton Case

Author(s): Michelle de Kretser

Fiction

MURDER, MOONLIGHT, THE JUNGLE CROWDING CLOSE...The place is Ceylon, the time the 1930s. Set amid tea plantations, decay and corruption, this sinuous, subtle, surprising novel is a masterly evocation of time and place, of colonialism and the backwash of empire. It is the story of an embittered Ceylonese lawyer, Sam Obeysekere himself a product of empire - 'obey' by name and by nature - and of a family that once had wealth and influence but starts to crack open when Sam's charismatic father dies leaving gambling debts, an ex-beauty of a wife, an unstable daughter and an inadequate son. But the writing has been on the wall for a generation, ever since another sibling died in his cot- And at the heart of the novel is the Hamilton Case, a 'White Mischief' murder scandal that shakes the upper echelons of the island's society. Sam's involvement in it makes his name but paradoxically ensures that he will never achieve his ambition. A miracle of delicacy and restraint, full of volte faces, and narrated with perfect pitch in a voice that catches both the tragedy and comedy of their situation, this is a gripping, nuanced tale of the end of an era, suffused with 'the unbearable thought that everything might have turned out differently'.

$19.99 AUD

Stock: 0


Add to Wishlist


Product Information

Shortlisted for Age Book of the Year: Fiction 2003.

General Fields

  • : 9781740512732
  • : Random House Australia
  • : Vintage (Australia)
  • : 0.256
  • : 198mm X 130mm X 25mm
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Michelle de Kretser
  • : Paperback
  • : 410
  • : A823
  • : 384
  • : FA