A name is the first story that attaches itself to a life. Consider mine: Stanley Alban Marriott Obeysekere. It tells of geography, history, love and uncertainty. I was born on an island suspended midway on the golden trade route between East and West… Ceylon in the 1930s is a crumbling outpost of empire hemmed in by jungle and tea plantations. At the heart of Michelle de Kretser’s dazzling and savage novel is a murder scandal in which Stanley, an Oxford-educated lawyer, becomes entangled. The Hamilton Case traces the unravelling of family and duty, legacy and identity, in a world of lost possibilities.
