Nina McConigley | How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

The King's English Bookshop is thrilled to welcome award winning writer Nina McConigley for the release of her debut novel, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder. Nina will be in conversation with local and bestselling author Gabriel Tallent. Tickets for this event are $5 and all proceeds go directly to our partner non-profit, Brain Food Books.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event. You may also pre-order your signed copy of the book to be picked up at the event by either calling the store at 801-484-9100 or ordering online. If you cannot make this event, signed copies may be ordered from our website. Please specify in the comments if you would like your copy personalized.

Places in the signing line are reserved for those who purchase a copy from The King's English.

About the book:

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.