To Kill A Mockingbird came out in 1960, and the sequel is now set to come out 55 years later. There’s not many books or authors you could say that about, can you? Harper Lee, who wrote the classic, has just announced her intent to release the sequel. Lee reportedly wrote the sequel in the 1950s and actually shelved it, but it’s about to see the light of day – albeit in a fairly limited run. According to reports, the publishing house will print 2 million first-edition copies, but I have no doubt that there will be a LOT more printed once the publicity machine starts revving up.
In her statement, Harper Lee confirms that the story line for the sequel – titled ‘Go Set A Watchman’ – will focus on an older version of To Kill A Mockingbird heroine Scout Finch. She explained, “In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman. It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it a pretty decent effort. My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel (what became To Kill a Mockingbird) from the point of view of the young Scout.”
The story will reportedly be set 20 years after the events of To Kill A Mockingbird, with the publisher adding details to the story by explaining, “Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus. She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.”
So why exactly are we getting this book 55 years after To Kill A Mockingbird? Why didn’t we get this first? Well, Harper Lee explains that she was a first-time writer when she wrote Mockingbird, and she was convinced by her agent to write the book from a young Scout Finch’s perspective as the story was more immediately interesting. And well, Harper followed those instructions, and the rest – as they say – is history. But now that To Kill A Mockingbird has become a classic, it’s about time we get a sequel, no? Some people think it’s better that classics like this are left alone, untouched and unaffected, for the rest of history. Others are excited to see if Harper can replicate the magic a second time around. Either way, there’s no denying that Go Set A Watchman will become a must-read event when it eventually does release.
