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THE literary world is still reeling from the news that author Harper Lee will be releasing a sequel to her acclaimed novel To Kill a Mockingbird this summer … 55 years after her debut work was published.
Go Set a Watchman is set during the mid-1950s and features many of the characters from the best-seller some 20 years later.
Linda Jennings, owner and general manager of Bahrain’s The Bookcase, who helped launch the GulfWeekly Book Club, said: “This is obviously the literary phenomenon of the year and I cannot stress how amazing this book is going to be.”
News of its publication has stunned fans of the 88-year-old author, who have waited for a second novel from Lee since 1960, when she released her debut tale of racism in the American south. To Kill a Mockingbird, a coming-of-age story and anti-racist novel, is also an historical drama of the Great Depression in the US.
The forthcoming release was written by Lee before her best-seller. It features her beloved character Scout as an adult, returning to her home town of Maycomb from New York to visit Atticus, her lawyer father, along with many of the other characters.
“To Kill a Mockingbird has long been in every must-read list of books and readers have always wanted to know what happened to Scout and her brother as they grew up,” explained Linda, as the store prepares to celebrate its 22nd birthday around the same time of the launch of Go Set a Watchman. “I am in equal parts curious and excited about this book and cannot wait to read it!”
In this novel, 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 both her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.
It has been described as ‘an instant classic’ by its publishers and the ‘most highly anticipated book of the decade/century/millennium’ by critics. “We can close the book on the bestselling novel of 2015 right now,” said Chris White, of the UK’s Waterstones high street bookstore giant.
When an author’s debut novel wins the Pulitzer prize and goes on to sell 40 million copies, perennially topping lists of the world’s best-loved books, it’s understandable that she might be apprehensive about the reception of a second.
Harper Lee appears to have no such fears. “It’s a pretty decent effort,” she said of Go Set a Watchman.
The 88-year-old author, who is profoundly deaf and almost totally blind, lives in an assisted-living facility in Monroeville – the small Alabama town where she spent summers growing up.
The deal to publish Go Set a Watchman was negotiated between the US publisher HarperCollins and Harper Lee’s local attorney, Tonja Carter.
Carter, whose close relationship with Lee has been the source of some local controversy, is said to have discovered the original manuscript just three months ago.
Lee said in a statement attributed to her by her publisher that Go Set a Watchman was completed in the mid-1950s, but she believed the original manuscript had been lost.
After publication of her debut novel, Lee largely retired from public life and did not release another work of fiction despite overwhelming demand, telling an interviewer in 1964 – her last major piece of publicity – that: ‘I didn’t expect the book to sell in the first place’, and that the reaction was ‘just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I’d expected ... like being hit over the head and knocked cold’.
The publisher’s announcement was accompanied by a new photo of Lee, climbing out of a car and smiling. The news has been kept secret from all but a handful of staff and publicity director Charlotte Bush reported that when it was revealed, a series of screams went up around the office.
* To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is available to Gulf Weekly Book Club members for BD3.900. Go Set a Watchman is set to be released on Tuesday, July 14, priced BD9, and booklovers can add their name to a waiting list at The Bookcase on Budaiya Highway, near Saar. To join our free club, email bookclub@gulfweeklycom for details.
