Harper Lee's new book

[GK4Herd]

One of my daughter's bought me To Kill a Mockingbird for my birthday. This was a very good book if you somehow missed it in high school. Harper Lee after 50 years of shunning the public is coming out with a second book at the age of 88. It's called Go Set a Watchman. Has anyone read this yet? I suspect that it will be disappointing under the weight of Mockingbird. The expectations are pretty high. Anyone?

 

[herdfan429]

I thought it didn't come out until May. If I'm wrong I'll definitely check it out. Didn't she write this book before to kill a mockingbird?

 

[GK4Herd]

I really don't know if she did. I don't know a lot about her but recent publicity surrounding her second novel has piqued my interest. In a way I hope she did write it prior to Mockingbird. I'll find out though.

 

[herdfan429]

Release date is in July 14. And I found this blurb on Harper Collins website

An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.

Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.

Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America, Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee's enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right.
http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062409850/go-set-a-watchman

 

[GK4Herd]

It looks like Go Set a Watchman was originally written with the characters Atticus much older and his kids Scout and Jem as adults. The story was told through flashbacks. But the publisher pushed her to write the book from the kids perspective. To Kill a Mockingbird was the result. Thanks for the info.