BOOK NERDS! Surely you’ve heard by now that Harper Lee, author of beloved high school staple To Kill A Mockingbird, is publishing another book this summer?
WELL SHE IS.
This new novel, to be titled Go Set a Watchman, was the original manuscript she wrote prior to Mockingbird, but was scrapped when her editor told her to write the whole novel from young!Scout’s perspective, rather than adult!Scout’s perspective (which is when Watchman is set). Yes, Watchman is almost a sequel to Mockingbird, except it was actually written first, and it focuses on adult!Scout and her relationship with her aging father as well as the turmoil of race relations in the 1950s.
No, I have no idea what the title means! Am I still excited? YES!
There are some questions as to why Harper Lee decided to publish now – the main concern seeming to be that someone (her lawyer or agent or whoever) took advantage of her. Her lawyer supposedly found the manuscript going through Lee’s archives.
The New York Times wrote a more detailed piece on it here. The Times also put online their original review of To Kill A Mockingbird. You can take a look at that here.
This was one of the books that I loved in high school, early on. Before I quit listening to my English teachers (sophomore year) when I read books, books we read at school were hard to enjoy. My friends and I were always sad that we had to read all the plays of Oedipus but there was no Mockingbird follow up.
NOW THERE WILL BE! I can hardly wait for July, this is like when the new Harry Potter books used to come out!
Finally, from Buzzfeed.
words in scarlet ink 