Until July 2015, Harper Lee had published only one novel: To Kill a Mockingbird. Go Set a Watchman is either the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, a rough draft of it, or something in between - it depends on whom you ask. What is Go Set a Watchman, and why is it coming out now? So does America now need to exile To Kill a Mockingbird from its summer reading assignments? Or should readers continue to read Mockingbird as if Watchman had never existed? How you think about this, it turns out, depends on who you think is responsible for creating a novel's meaning - and how comfortable you are with America's complicated racial legacy. These questions have only become more urgent since the book's release on July 14, due to its 'reveal' that Atticus Finch, the anti-racist hero of To Kill a Mockingbird, is a virulent racist in Watchman. There are questions about whether Lee actually wanted it to be published, or whether she even wrote it at all - and if so, when. It's also the only novel that its author, Harper Lee, had ever published - until a sudden announcement in February 2015 heralded the publication of Go Set a Watchman, a new Lee work featuring the same characters as To Kill a Mockingbird.Ī lot of people are suspicious about the discovery of the new manuscript. It's an inspiring story about standing up to injustice even if doing so is difficult and unpopular an accessible coming-of-age tale and a convenient way to teach high school English students about the Jim Crow South. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best-known books in America.

Go tell a watchman