The Lie Tree: When Faith’s father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets. But as Faith’s untruths spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter...
Frances Hardinge was brought up in a sequence of small, sinister English villages, and spent a number of formative years living in a Gothic-looking, mouse-infested hilltop house in Kent. She studied English Language and Literature at Oxford, fell in love with the city's crazed archaic beauty, and lived there for many years.
Whilst working full-time as a technical author for a software company, she started writing her first children's novel, Fly by Night, and was – with difficulty – persuaded by a good friend to submit the manuscript to Macmillan.
Fly by Night went on to win the Branford Boase Award, and was also shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Award. Her subsequent books, Verdigris Deep, Gullstruck Island, Twilight Robbery, A Face Like Glass, Cuckoo Song and The Lie Tree are also aimed at children and young adults.
Frances lives in Isleworth, is seldom seen without her hat and is addicted to volcanoes. The Lie Tree was shortlisted for the 2015 Independent Bookshop Week Book Awards (Children’s Fiction) and Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and is nominated for the 2016 CILIP Carnegie Medal.
Published by Macmillan Children's Books, The Lie Tree