Nina McConigley

'A fierce and marvelous book with an utterly unique, brightly burning lifeforce' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, author of GREAT CIRCLE'Tender, defiant, and formally daring . . . I fell in love with McConigley's fierce, wry narrator Georgie Ayyar from the first page and couldn't stop reading. A powerful, groundbreaking book' JESSAMINE CHAN, author of THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERSIn the summer of 1986, the Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyars and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and two young cousins - newly arrived from India - into their house in rural Wyoming where they will all live together. Because this is what families do. That is until the sisters decide that it's time for one of their newly arrived family members to die.How to Commit a Post-colonial Murder is many things. It is a vivid portrait of an extended family; the moving story of the relationship between two sisters; a murder mystery (of sorts); a love letter to the 1980s; a formally-inventive amalgam of first-person narration, pen pal letters, and teen-magazine-style quizzes; and a powerful meditation on race, language, colonialism, trauma, and the meaning of independence.

A bold, inventive, and fiercely original debut novel that begins with an uncle dead and his tween niece's private confession to the reader--she and her sister killed him, and they blame the British. Summer, 1986. The Creel sisters, Georgie Ayyar and Agatha Krishna, welcome their aunt, uncle and young cousin--newly arrived from India--into their house in rural Wyoming where they'll all live together. Because this is what families do. That is, until the sisters decide that it's time for their uncle to die. According to Georgie, the British are to blame. And to understand why, you need to hear her story. She details the violence hiding in their house and history, her once-unshakeable bond with Agatha Krishna, and her understanding of herself as an Indian-American in the heart of the West. Her account is, at every turn, cheeky, unflinching, and infectiously inflected with the trappings of teendom, including the magazine quizzes that help her make sense of her life. At its heart, the tale she weaves is: a) a vivid portrait of an extended family b) a moving story of sisterhood c) a playful ode to the 80s d) a murder mystery (of sorts) e) an unexpected and unwaveringly powerful meditation on history and language, trauma and healing, and the meaning of independence Or maybe it's really: f) all of the above.