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NPR's Book of the Day

'How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder' is a dark new novel about sisterhood

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2672 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s interview, author Nina McConigley tells NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe that she wanted to write a sister book. How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is the author’s dark debut novel about two Indian-American sisters growing up in rural Wyoming in the 1980s. There, they experience abuse that drives them to seek revenge. In today’s episode, McGonigley and Rascoe discuss split identities and the complex feelings that arise from life under colonialism – and from surviving abuse.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. When you and your sibling decide to do

0:07.6

something bad together, a bond forms. You are more than just siblings now. You are partners.

0:14.6

Now, the bad thing I have in mind is along the lines of lying to your parents about a party or

0:19.7

something, but the sisters in the novel

0:21.8

how to commit a post-colonial murder have something more serious in mind. Author Nina McConaugly

0:28.5

talks to NPR's Aja Roscoe about how the book was inspired by a few other great sister novels,

0:34.3

Middle March and the color purple, and how she just wanted to write her own

0:38.3

sister book. That's after the break. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people

0:44.4

using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few

0:50.6

simple taps. Be smart, get Wise. Download the Wise app today or visit wise.com. T's and

0:57.4

C's apply. At the start of a dark new novel, Georgie Ayur Creel is looking back to the pivotal

1:05.7

summer when she was 12 and her sister Agatha Krishna was 14. Agatha Krishna said it started when they came,

1:13.5

so that's where you could put the blame. But then she said we had to go further back than that.

1:18.3

So we blamed it on Reagan. Everyone blamed him that summer. The summer the country went into a

1:22.9

bust. The summer we watched an exodus empty out of our town. Then I blamed the Cold War gorbachev he had that stain on his head and thus i felt couldn't be trusted we blamed aids which we didn't really get but thought you could get from the water fountain at the public library you stepped on with your foot we blamed the olympics and hated sam, their feathered mascot, who dressed like

1:44.9

Uncle Sam in red, white, and blue, though secretly I had a button of him with his sly smile and

1:50.2

torch. We blamed it on my parents for moving to Wyoming in the first place for settling in

1:55.2

Marley. And then we just generally blame them for everything. We thought they shouldn't have married,

2:00.3

that they shouldn't have mixed us up, shouldn't have made us half-sees. So the sisters ultimately settle

2:06.2

on blaming the British, though acknowledging it's their Uncle Vinnie, or Vinnie Uncle, who'll pay.

2:13.2

How to Commit a post-colonial murder is the debut novel of Nina Mechanically, who's with us now.

2:20.0

Welcome to the program.

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