The Booksellers Association and Bookshop.org, working in partnership for the National Year of Reading, are delighted to announce One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad and Pomona: Stories of the Cat Witch by Tor Freeman as Indie Book of the Month and Indie Book of the Month (Children's) for October. The year-long partnership brings together the Booksellers Association’s Books Are My Bag consumer campaign and Bookshop.org’s online platform to champion monthly Indie Book of the Month titles, supporting reading for pleasure and driving readers towards independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland. Each monthly selection benefits from coordinated promotion across the combined reach of the Booksellers Association’s and Bookshop.org’s social media channels, newsletters and digital platforms, ensuring independent bookshops remain central to reader discovery. Independent bookshops across the UK and Ireland will also promote One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This and Pomona: Stories of the Cat Witch throughout October via in-store and digital promotional materials. An urgent and necessary reckoning about what it means to live in the West today, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles El Akkad’s painful realisation, shaped by twenty years of reporting on the Wars on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests and, more recently, the devastation in Gaza. Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, said: "It’s an honour to have One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chosen as an Indie Book of the Month. For many years, I’ve said (and I mean this without hyperbole) that I would likely not have any career at all were it not for the support of independent booksellers. I urge everyone who loves books to buy them from the places and the people where that love is shared." Pomona lives in a little house in the forest, surrounded by her friends Ratso, Prince Frog, Elfis and Grandma Wyona. Across this funny and charming collection of stories, she learns how to bake a cake with love, finds a friend for her lonely pet caterpillar, discovers empathy, and discovers that there definitely isn’t enough room for anyone else in her hammock! Tor Freeman, author of Pomona: Stories of the Cat Witch, said: “I am really delighted to have had my book, Pomona: Tales of the Cat Witch, chosen as the Indie Children’s Book for October. I know what a vital and positive impact independent bookshops have on an area, both locally and more widely through online sales and presence. This campaign to highlight these shops’ importance and ability to help books find the right readers is something I’m very happy to be a part of!” The Indie Book of the Month and Indie Book of the Month (Children's) titles are selected by panels of independent bookshops from publisher submissions. The Indie Book of the Month and Indie Book of the Month (Children’s) titles are selected by panels of independent bookshops from publisher submissions