The Hamilton Case is a 2003 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Australian author

Australian literature

Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary tradition begins with and is linked to...

 Michelle de Kretser

Michelle de Kretser

Michelle de Kretser is an Australian novelist who was born in Sri Lanka but moved to Australia when she was 14.She was educated in Melbourne and Paris, and published her first novel, The Rose Grower in 1999...

. The book won the Commonwealth Writers Prize (SE Asia & Pacific) and the Encore Award

Encore Award

The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel - now awarded biennially - was first awarded in 1990. It is administered by the Society of Authors and is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second...

 (UK). The work centres around the lives of the somewhat eccentric Obeysekere family, in particular Sam, and the 1930s setting explores themes of colonization in Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

. Michelle de Kretser is originally from Sri Lanka. The title refers to a fictional case involving the murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 of an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 planter in Ceylon, which Sam Obeysekere, a lawyer, attempts to solve. Time Magazine named the book as one of the five best novels of 2004, referring to the date published in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Awards

• Frankfurt Literaturpreis, 2007, winner
• International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
  International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
  The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
  
  , 2005, longlist
• Tasmania Pacific Region Prize, Fiction Prize, 2005, winner
• Festival Awards for Literature (SA), Dymocks Booksellers Award for Fiction, 2004, shortlist
• Believer Book Award
  Believer Book Award
  Believer Book Award is an American literary award presented yearly by The Believer magazine to novels and story collections the magazine's editors thought were the "strongest and most under-appreciated" of the year. A shortlist and longlist are announced, along with reader's favorites, then a final...
  
  , 2004, shortlist
• Commonwealth Writers Prize, South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book, 2004, winner
• Encore Award
  Encore Award
  The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel - now awarded biennially - was first awarded in 1990. It is administered by the Society of Authors and is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second...
  
  , 2004, winner
• Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year, 2004, Fiction #5
• Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Awards, Fiction, 2004, second
• The Age Book of the Year
  The Age Book of the Year
  The Age Book of the Year Awards are annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's The Age newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. Since 1998 they have been presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival...
  
   Award, Fiction Prize, 2003, shortlist
• Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....
  
  , The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction, 2003, shortlist