How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

'Even better than I could have imagined . . . [it] takes all the expected stories about growing up Indian American, slices them open with razor-sharp wit, and turns them inside out' CELESTE NG, author of OUR MISSING HEARTS

'Nina McConigley is a true original . . . Heart-mending and heart-breaking - as only the truth can be' TAYARI JONES, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE

'A fierce and marvelous book with an utterly unique, brightly burning lifeforce' MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD, author of GREAT CIRCLE

Georgie and Agatha Krishna killed their uncle, and they blame the British.

Summer, 1986. The tween 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. It's one of violence hiding in their house and history, of her once-unshakeable bond with her sister, of being an Indian-American girl in the heart of the West. Her account is cheeky, unflinching and infectiously inflected with the trappings of teendom: pen pal letters, how-to guides, games of MASH and teen-magazine-style quizzes that promise to make sense of their lives. And the tale she weaves is either:

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) a ruthless meditation on history and language, trauma and healing, and the meaning of independence

Or maybe it's really:

f) all of the above.

'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 MOTHERS

'Inventive and captivating . . . Full of heart and soul, this is a knockout work that deftly tackles the complex bonds of friendship and family' AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL, author of WORLD OF WONDERS

'Spirited and witty, stylish and audacious' MEGHA MAJUMDAR, author of A BURNING

About the Author

Nina McConigley is the author of the acclaimed story collection Cowboys and East Indians, which won the PEN Open Book and High Plains Book Awards, and was longlisted for the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Orion, O, the Oprah Magazine, VQR and elsewhere.

McConigley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston, an MA in English from the University of Wyoming, and a BA in Literature from Saint Olaf College. She teaches at Colorado State University and the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. She and her family live in Wyoming.