Go Set a Watchman

Author Harper Lee
Narrator Reese Witherspoon
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 14 July 2015
Run Time 6 hours and 57 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Classic fiction, Family life fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Social issues.

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What to expect

Go Set a Watchman is set during the mid-1950s and features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. 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. An instant classic.

Critics Review

A new work, and a pleasure, revelation and genuine literary eventu2026Go Set a Watchman shakes the settled view of both an author and her novelu2026This publication intensifies the regret that Harper Lee published so little.

Guardian

Go Set a Watchman is the more radical, ambitious and politicised of the two novels Lee has now publishedu2026It has contemporary relevance where Mockingbird is safely sealed off as a piece of American historyu2026It does not undermine Mockingbird but it makes a reassessment of that story absolutely necessaryu2026It is a book of enormous literary interestu2026Beguiling and distinctive, and reminiscent of Mockingbirdu2026Go Set a Watchman canu2019t be dismissed as literary scraps from Leeu2019su2019 imagination. It has too much integrity for that.

Independent

More edgy and thought provoking [than To Kill a Mockingbird] u2026 It has a power to it beyond being a mere historical curio or more lit crit material for Harper Lee studiesu2026 Eccentric characters are brightly drawn. There is Leeu2019s trademark warmth, some droll lines and the sense of place and time is strongu2026[It has] a surprisingly provocative message u2014 donu2019t airily dismiss the prejudices of others, try to understand them.

The Times

The flashes of lyrical genius and ability to evoke the intensity of childhood play that come to fruition in To Kill a Mockingbird are in evidenceu2026Itu2019s nowhere near the novel Mockingbird is. It is much better than thatu2026What Watchman tells us, and tells us rather powerfully, is that racism is not confined to people who are so clearly not like usu2026Watchman is for grown-ups. It asks serious questions about what racism is. And it comes at a time when American desperately needs a grown-up conversation about race.

New Statesman

Iu2019m happy to report that most of the caveats and conspiracy theories surrounding Go Set a Watchman melt away as you read the opening chapters and reacquaint yourself with that beguiling Harper Lee narrative style u2014 warm, sardonic, amused by male folly and social pretension, wryly funny, a sassy Southern voice, Mark Twain with a dash of Katharine Hepburn.

Sunday Times

We have travelled into the past and returned to find that our present is not quite the same as we left it. Atticus Finch will never again be the white knight we once thought him. And yet the mockingbird still sings u2014 no longer a song of innocence, but maybe one of experience; a song that combines sorrow, forgiveness u2014 and, ultimately, a kind of hope.

Daily Mail

There are some flashes of geniusu2026My favourite scene is at u201ca coffeeu201d, where our rebellious Scout must make small talk with a bunch of married former acquaintances whom she deliberately hasnu2019t seen since school. Leeu2019s pru00e9cis of their vapid conversation is hilarious, feminist and wickedly modern.

Independent on Sunday

Go Set A Watchman is a powerful and moving novelu2026 The opening chapters are slow and languorous, beautifully setting the scene. Leeu2019s unadorned style is lit up by the occasional sparkling metaphor.

Daily Express

A literary masterpiece, and an enjoyable one at that.

Sun

Equally significant today, and imbued with Leeu2019s wisdom, humanity and humour.

Independent

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