Three lucky Rye News readers will receive a copy of Go Set A Watchman, the new book by Harper Lee, courtesy of The Rye Bookshop on the High Street.
The controversial novel is published on July 14 by Cornerstone (£18.99) and is the eagerly anticipated companion to Harper Lee’s much loved classic To Kill A Mockingbird. On the launch day, the manager of newly opened bookshop, Lizzie Lee, and the booksellers will be inviting customers to join them for celebratory coffee and doughnuts from 8:30am.
Go Set a Watchman is likely to be one of the biggest books for years, with bookshops around the country preparing reading groups, quiz nights and midnight openings to mark the launch. After To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960, Harper Lee put aside Go Set a Watchman and never returned to it. The original manuscript of the novel was considered to have been lost until the autumn of 2014, when Tonja Carter discovered it in a secure location, where it had been affixed to an original typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird.
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 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.
Manager Lizzie Lee says: “It’s so exciting to finally have another Harper Lee novel to read! It really is the literary event of the decade. We’ll be opening early in honour of the occasion, and we look forward to welcoming everyone in to grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat – and to collect their copy of this much-anticipated book”.
Competition
The Rye Bookshop has kindly offered readers the chance to win one of three copies of the book. Simply answer the following question and send your answers to info@ryenews.org.uk. The winners will be drawn at the end of the month and will need to go into The Rye Bookshop to pick up their prize.
Which actor won an Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch in the 1962 screen adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird?
- James Stewart
- Gregory Peck
- Cary Grant
Good luck!