Episode 22: Nina McConigley

We had a great time with Nina McConigley, author of the new novel How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder, which hits all the beats you want from a book where a character named Agatha Krishna says, “We blame the British.” Nina shared with us her thoughts on how colonialism divided not only countries but selves, and where characters (and real people) find themselves within those divides. Then, how can you tell if a translated work is good when you don’t know the author’s language? Maybe the translator created something great that isn’t really true to the original version, or brought down a great work with their bad translation. (Note to translators: We think you are cool and the above scenario is purely hypothetical.) How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder is available now.   Works cited this episode: Angels in America, Tony Kushner Cowboys and East Indians, Nina McConigley Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto by Mark Polizzotti The Odyssey, Homer, translated by Emily Wilson Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell On the Soul (De Anima), Aristotle, translated by Hugh Lawson-Tancred The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams