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How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

On sale

22nd January 2026

Price: £24.99

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Selected: Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781405566766

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Reviews

Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This thrilling bildungsroman is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng
Maggie Shipstead, author of GREAT CIRCLE
A fierce and marvelous book with an utterly unique, brightly burning lifeforce
Stylist
An intriguing tale of murder, of sisters, of growing up as an Indian American girl in the 80s and a love letter to teen magazines that'll totally confound your expectations
Financial Times
Droll, caustic in its observation of American mores, and laced with wit and compassion
Megha Majumdar, author of A BURNING
Spirited and witty, stylish and audacious, How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is gorgeously in possession of itself. 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
Tayari Jones, author of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE
Nina McConigley is a true original. With a wit so sharp that it makes you bleed as soon as it would make you laugh, she slices through the postcolonial dilemma with all of its complexities and absurdities. Heart-mending and heart-breaking - as only the truth can be
Celeste Ng, author of OUR MISSING HEARTS
I have been waiting for Nina McConigley's debut novel for years and it's even better than I could have imagined. How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder takes all the expected stories about growing up Indian American, slices them open with razor-sharp wit, and turns them inside out. A moving portrayal of sisterhood and a much-needed examination of how power is abused - over girls, over countries, over cultures - and the possibilities, and costs, of reclaiming that power
Jessamine Chan, author of THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS
Tender, defiant, and formally daring, Nina McConigley's stunning debut novel How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is 'not the expected brown person story' but rather a tale of sisterhood and survival, a child's yearning for safety and protection, and the search for wholeness in a world that wants to split you in half. 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
Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of WORLD OF WONDERS
Part thriller, part coming-of-age, part magazine quiz, Nina McConigley's inventive and captivating How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder boldly examines the often hidden and scary parts of childhood. Full of heart and soul, this is a knockout work that deftly tackles the complex bonds of friendship and family - offering up compelling questions for our notions of what it means to truly love
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Framed like a funny, ferociously allusive grown-up version of a YA whodunit, McConigley's debut novel carries deeper, knottier mysteries than the curious crime at its center. Wittily observant and achingly tender
Library Journal (starred review)
McConigley's impactful work will linger. Interspersed with details of the U.S. in the late 20th century, this is a book for all collections
The i
This formally inventive debut explores sisterhood and the everyday legacies of empire with dark humour