Go Set a Watchman: Harper Lee's sensational lost novel

· Random House
4.0
169 reviews
Ebook
288
Pages

About this ebook

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A landmark new novel from Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird.

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her.

Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only by one’s own conscience.

Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humour and effortless precision – a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to a classic.

Ratings and reviews

4.0
169 reviews
John Jennings
August 26, 2015
From a slow start to a well paced page turner revealing a shocking secret. Atticus Finch the hero who stands up for the rights of the down trodden Negro is a racist. The novel theme of bigotry seems to leave us with the conclusion that bigots, if they believe in and stand up for the rule of law, are acceptable. Apparently this was a first draft and it shows. It certainly needs editting and at its messy finish I was left totally disatisfied wondering why it was published in that state.
5 people found this review helpful
Lauren Peacock
July 26, 2015
Honestly... felt betrayed. It really distressed me. To Kill a Mockingbird felt timeless and had such beautiful thematic tones. I would have disliked this book even if it was not by Harper Lee and a sort of sequel to TKAM but the fact that it was led me to hate it. Too much of the book was painful bigoted. Even the protagonist casually agreed to painfully racist propositions. The heros of the first book were systematically destroyed here.
2 people found this review helpful
Natasha Gonzalez
April 3, 2016
Started slow, I was sad that Jem had died and Dill was off gallivanting. It's messy in places and finding out that Atticus is a card carrying bigot, devastating. This book should not have been published, there's a reason it was locked up in a safe for all this long. RIP Harper Lee

About the author

Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She attended Huntington College and studied law at the University of Alabama. She is the author of the acclaimed novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and numerous other literary awards and honours. She died on 19 February 2016.

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