Go Set a Watchman, completed in the mid-50s but lost for more than half a century, was written before To Kill A Mockingbird and features Scout as an adult
Harper Lee in 2007. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
When an author's debut novel wins the Pulitzer prize and goes on to sell 40 million copies, perennially topping lists of the world's best-loved books, it's understandable that they might be apprehensive about the reception of a second.
Harper Lee, who sent the literary universe into a spin on Tuesday after she announced she would be releasing a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird this summer - 55 years after her debut - appears to have no such fears. "It's a pretty decent effort," she said of Go Set a Watchman.
News of its publication this summer stunned fans of the 88-year-old author, who have waited for a second novel from Lee since 1960, when she released her debut tale of racism in the American south.
The novel was written by Lee before To Kill a Mockingbird, but is set some 20 years later. It features Lee's beloved character Scout as an adult, returning to her home town of Maycomb from New York to visit Atticus, her lawyer father, along with many of the characters from Lee's debut.