1. Michelle de Kretser once said in an interview that "people who are not well loved do not know how to love well in turn." How does Sam exemplify this statement?

2. How does Sam's schooling at St. Edward's ("Neddy's") and Oxford influence his social and political opinions?

3. Sam's sister, Claudia, ends her life tragically. What aspects of her past and present did she find unbearable?

4. Sam and Jaya come from similar privileged Sinhalese backgrounds. What is at the root of their animosity? How do their hopes for Ceylon's future differ?

5. Sam reveres all things English. How does this reverence affect his attitude toward his mother, Maud, and his choice of Leela as his wife?

6. How is "the fabulous flotsam of Empire" reflected in the decorative objects in Sam's childhood and marital houses?

7. The Ceylonese jungle is a powerful physical presence in this novel, especially as it slowly takes over the estate to which Maud is exiled at Lokugama. What kind of metaphorical presence does it have? How does it complement Maud's decline?

8. Would you say that Sam --- as a widower whose grown son is estranged from him --- is most dismayed by the loss of his family, his fall from professional grace, or the cessation of English rule in Ceylon in 1948?

9. How does the use of different points of view in each of the four parts of The Hamilton Case enlarge our understanding of the characters and their country?

10. At the end of The Hamilton Case, Shivanathan writes that "history, like any other verdict, is not a matter of fact but a point of view." Do you agree? Discuss.