Well, this is unexpected.
Reclusive, 88-year-old novelist Harper Lee announced today that a sequel to her beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird will hit bookstores this summer, a scant 55 years after the the publication of the first book.
Go Set a Watchman - which is set to be released on July 14 - will only be the second work that Lee has published.
Needless to say, she's not the most prolific author, and despite the fact that her first novel has endured as a favorite of young and old alike, Lee rarely makes public appearances.
So it came as something of a shock to the literary world when Lee issued a statement through her publisher today confirming that the long-rumored book - which details the adventures of protagonist Scout Finch 20 years after the events of Mockingbird - would actually see the light of day.
Lee says Watchman was actually completed before Mockingbird, but Lee was apparently not aware that a copy of the manuscript had survived until recently:
"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman," Lee says. "It features the character of Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it was a pretty decent effort."
Reclusive, 88-year-old novelist Harper Lee announced today that a sequel to her beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird will hit bookstores this summer, a scant 55 years after the the publication of the first book.
Go Set a Watchman - which is set to be released on July 14 - will only be the second work that Lee has published.
Needless to say, she's not the most prolific author, and despite the fact that her first novel has endured as a favorite of young and old alike, Lee rarely makes public appearances.
So it came as something of a shock to the literary world when Lee issued a statement through her publisher today confirming that the long-rumored book - which details the adventures of protagonist Scout Finch 20 years after the events of Mockingbird - would actually see the light of day.
Lee says Watchman was actually completed before Mockingbird, but Lee was apparently not aware that a copy of the manuscript had survived until recently:
"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman," Lee says. "It features the character of Scout as an adult woman, and I thought it was a pretty decent effort."
