Author Harper Lee To Break 55 year Hiatus with New Book 'Go Set A Watchman'

by Rana Asfour

Pulitzer Prize winning author Harper Lee is to release a second work of fiction 55 years after her first (and only) work of fiction 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. The new novel, 'Go Set A Watchman', features an adult Scout, her father Atticus and many of the other familiar characters of Lee's first book 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

The new novel is apparently not a sequel and was actually written in the 1950s before 'To Kill a Mockingbird' although those in the know have said it is set 10 years after that book. The reason it took so long to publish is that Lee had believed that the manuscript had been long lost. 'Go Set a Watchman' will hit shelves this summer. It will be published by HarperCollins in America whereas UK and Commonwealth rights to the book have been acquired by Penguin Random House.

According to media sources the reclusive 88-year-old author who withdrew from the public eye right after the fame of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is now profoundly deaf, almost totally blind and lives in an assisted-living facility in the US.

The news has been labeled by some media sources as 'a bolt from the blue'. Guess I know what I'll be re-reading next or maybe I'll just re-watch the film adaptation.

For more on this story, see Here.

---