The Booksellers Association has today revealed Greener by Gráinne Murphy as Fiction Book of the Month, and The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie by Radhika Sanghani as Children’s Book of the Month for May.    
 
Independent bookshops around the UK and Ireland will be promoting Greener and The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie throughout May 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.

Greener follows the friendships of Helen, Annie and Laura who, as teenagers, were inseparable. They bonded over family, boys, and their dreams for the future. But when school ended, so did their friendship. Twenty-five years later, a snowstorm forces the three women to spend time together, leaving them wondering if they can reconcile the gap between who they are and who they used to be.
 
Greener shares the changing dynamics of adult friendships and asks whether old friends can ever let us become new people. Greener is published by Legend Press (18 April 2024) and is available to buy in bookshops now.
 
Gráinne Murphy said: “Independent bookshops are crucial to books and writers. Their support helps new books to find readers and extends the life of a book beyond that initial publication day flurry. Indie bookshop staff are passionate, informed, and read broadly enough to meet any reader requirement – the ‘staff picks’ section is my first and favourite browsing stop in every independent bookshop and I always come away with something special I might otherwise have overlooked.”
 
 
The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie follows the story of Priya Shah who lies. She pretends everything in her life is perfect, so she doesn’t disappoint anyone. But when she puts on a bangle left to her by her Ba – the one person she was always honest with – she finds herself unable to tell a lie.
 
She starts telling people the truth and once she starts, she can’t stop the truths pouring out of her. She hates her dads cooking, she tells Dan Zhang about her crush on him, she shares her best friends’ secrets. As more things go wrong, and her truth-telling spirals out of control, can Priya be honest with the people she loves? The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie is published by Usborne and is available to pre-order now, ahead of release on 9^th May.  
 
Radhika Sanghani said: “I'm thrilled to have The Girl Who Couldn't Lie selected as the Children's Book of the Month because I LOVE indie bookshops! I spend hours in my local indie, chatting to all the staff about our favourite books, and I even run a monthly book club there. There's nowhere like an indie bookshop that really captures the joy of reading, and I love that every single one has a completely different energy. It means so much to me to have them spreading the love for Priya.”
 
The Indie Book of the Month titles are selected by panels of booksellers from publisher submissions. The Children’s panel for May comprised members from Sevenoaks Bookshop, Borzoi Bookshop and Jaffe & Neale. The Fiction panel were from City Books; Hewson Books and The Book Nook, Tollesbury. The titles were also available to be voted on by all participating bookshops on Edelweiss.
 
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