books

World gears up for Harper Lee book launch

July 04, 2015

Harper Lee's ‘Go Set a Watchman’ is the most anticipated literary release of the season. – AFP pic, July 4, 2015. Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman" is the most anticipated literary release of the season, and various bookstores and cultural venues have events planned to mark the event.

Due out July 14 in print and digital editions as well as an audiobook narrated by Reese Witherspoon, "Go Set a Watchman" follows up the 89-year-old author's only other novel, the 1960 Pultizer Prize-winning classic "To Kill a Mockingbird," although it was written prior.

In "Go Set a Watchman," a grown-up Scout, who was the focus of "Mockingbird," travels from New York to Alabama to visit her father, Atticus Finch, 20 years after the events of "Mockingbird," and many of the same characters are included in the new story.

With that in mind, on July 14, New York's 92nd Street Y is hosting a reading of "Go Set a Watchman" by Mary Bedham, who as a child played Scout in the famous film version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Tickets are available, and the event will also be livestreamed. Stay tuned here for details.

In the UK, several Waterstones stores will host midnight openings to mark the release. The flagship Piccadilly shop has an evening planned for July 13 that will include panel discussions and a screening of the 1962 film.

On social media, publisher HarperCollins is promoting the hashtag #GoSetAWatchman for all things related to the book. Hype on Twitter is already under way as bookshops post event details and readers start the final countdown to the book's release. – AFP/Relaxnews, July 4, 2015.