Harper Lee has had a pretty unique career. It looked as though her first book, To Kill A Mockingbird, was going to be her only work released. Who could blame her to be honest, Lee was young at the time of its release and it has gone on to sell 40m million copies and become renowned as one of the best-loved books of all time.
Its completely understandable why someone might not be willing to release any more content, after all who would want to potentially taint their image of being one of the best authors of all time?
This of course leads me on to the excitement that hit the media and myself when I first heard that she had announced a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird! For a while I thought it might be an April Fools joke, especially as it was a shot out of the blue and I'm sure hardly anyone would have known she had been working on another title.
55 years after her debut it came as an incredible surprise to everyone! The book was called Go Set a Watchman and it came out a couple of months back, but I'm sure you were all aware of that. In fact it was said that Lee had thought the original manuscript had been lost.
I only recently finished it because of a hectic work schedule and I wanted to find some quality time to really get into it without distraction. What I found surprising is the fact that Lee had actually written this book before To Kill a Mockingbird, though the book itself is set 20 years after these events. It has the same lead character, Scout, as an adult now and it is lovely to be able to read her progression and see what she has been making of her life.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend everyone give it a read. I'm sure it will get to classic status simply because of the nature of its release and its links to To Kill a Mockingbird. The only lament I have is that it took so long to be released and that we have missed out on the talents of Lee because of the lack of her published work.
