The Booksellers Association has today announced Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Júnior (translated by Johnny Lorenz) as Fiction Book of the Month, and One Chance Dance by Efua Traoré as Children’s Book of the Month for July.
 
Independent bookshops around the UK and Ireland will be promoting Crooked Plow and One Chance Dance throughout July on social media and in-store. The Booksellers Association will be supporting the promotion of the Indie Books of the Month through social media and promotional material.

Heralded as the most important Brazilian novel of the century and winner of three literary awards, Crooked Plow is a unique blend of magical and social realism. Deep in Brazil’s neglected Bahia hinterland, two sisters find an ancient knife beneath their grandmother’s bed; momentarily mystified by its power, they decide to taste its metal. The shuddering violence that follows marks their lives and binds them together forever.
 
A new masterpiece, this fascinating and gripping story about the lives of subsistence farmers in the Brazil’s poorest region, three generations after the abolition of slavery in that country, is at once fantastic and realist, covering themes of family, spirituality, slavery and its aftermath and political struggle. Crooked Plow is published by Verso Books on 27 June 2023 and is available from bookshops now. 
 
Johnny Lorenz said: “I support independent bookshops because they are absolutely vital cultural institutions. Reading, writing, translating – these tend to be solitary practices, but one's local bookstore is a place for gathering. A temple for book lovers.”
 
One Chance Dance is a brand-new novel full of joy and wonder by the author of The House of Shells and Children of the Quicksands, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. A story which offers both emotional pull and a lot of fun, it is a contemporary adventure of destiny, friendship and dance set in the vibrant city of Lagos, Nigeria.
 
Jomi’s mum left him to find their destiny in Lagos, the city of dreams. Now, Jomi and his friendly bush baby follow her to the city, where their only starting place is a TV dance competition his mum used to love. Lagos is no place for a boy and a bush baby – but things start to look up when Jomi meets a crew of street kids. Together, they come up with a plan: a one-chance dance. If they can get on that TV show, then maybe Jomi’s mum will see him, and they can find their destiny together… One Chance Dance is published by Chicken House on 6 July 2023 and is available to pre-order now.
 
Efua Traoré said: "I've always felt a special kind of book love and knowledge in independent bookshops. I'm particularly honoured that One Chance Dance is the Children’s Book of the Month.”
 
The Indie Book of the Month titles are selected by panels of booksellers from publisher submissions. The Children’s panel for July comprised members from Owl & Pyramid; How Brave is the Wren; Nantwich Bookshop; Four Bears Books; Padstow Bookseller and Wonderland Bookshop. The Fiction panel were from Small City Bookshop; City Books; Goldstone Books and The Berwyn Bookshop.
 
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