How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 20, 2026
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
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.
"I have been waiting for Nina McConigley's debut novel for years and it's even better than I could have imagined." —Celeste Ng
“Spirited and witty, stylish and audacious...Its avid curiosity about the world, its alertness to history, and its enormously fun storytelling—with a twist at the end—held me in their spell.” —Megha Majumdar
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The heartbreaking reality of abuse meets the buoyant spirit of two teen girls in this stunning novel set in ’80s Wyoming. Georgie and Agatha are very familiar with what isolation feels like, as part of what seems to be the only Indian American family in the whole state. When their uncle from India joins the family with his wife and son, he begins sexually abusing the sisters, leaving them with a new feeling of isolation—from each other. So the answer is simple: They have to kill him. Georgie’s stream-of-consciousness thoughts are full of brilliant observations about many topics, returning often to the mindset of settler colonialism. After all, if white colonizers could take India from the Indians and Wyoming from the Native Americans, surely she and Agatha can take action to help themselves, no matter what that might mean for others. (“That’s what pioneers do,” she says. “That’s what colonizers do.”) This is a hauntingly multilayered story of pain, diaspora, humor, and sisterhood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
McConigley follows her PEN/Open Book Award–winning collection, Cowboys and East Indians, with a witty and ultimately profound tale centered on two angsty preteens' plot to kill their abusive uncle. From the beginning, the reader knows the killing will take place, and the bulk of the novel explores the lead-up to the crime. The mixed-race 12-year-old narrator, Georgie Ayyar Creel, agrees with her 13-year-old sister, Agatha Krishna, that the legacy of British colonialism is the reason they feel so out of place in 1986 Wyoming. ("They were the reason we were quiet around most white people," Georgie reflects about the British.) They blame everything on the British, including the arrival of their Indian mother's odious brother, Vinny, from India. After Vinnie rapes them, they plot to murder him by putting antifreeze in his drinks. Initially, the scheme strengthens the sisters' bond, but after they go through with it, Georgie is filled with newfound heartache. McConigley blends the macabre material with clever stylistic devices, such as quizzes in the style of teen magazines ("How Do You Know If a Boy Likes You?"), which mirror the plot as Georgie works herself up to the murder ("Do You Have What It Takes to Kill"). This thrilling bildungsroman is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng.
