Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has endured the test of time and is still taught in many high school classrooms throughout the country. After almost sixty years, this beautifully crafted novel continues to spark provoking conversations about justice, racism, and class systems. Fans of Harper Lee’s novel were devastated by the fact that, after releasing her book, Lee led a reclusive, quiet lifestyle and never wrote another novel. On Feb. 3rd, Lee announced that she did in fact write another novel, leaving her millions of fans in restless excitement until the book is released on July, 14th. In fact, many fans have already began pre-ordering this novel.

Lee’s second novel, Go Set a Watchman, was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel was centered around  an adult woman named Jean-Louise, who once went by the nickname Scout, visiting her father back in the small Alabama town she grew up in. When Lee pitched this novel to her publishers, they told her to completely rewrite the novel with Scout narrating as a child.

Go Set a Watchman was purportedly found by one of Harper Lee’s lawyers, who is said to be the only connection the 88 year old woman has to the outside world. However, there is much speculation surrounding the new novel’s release. There are many theories that question the validity of this book such as whether or not Harper Lee truly wrote it 60 years ago or at all, whether or not Lee is happy about its release, and whether or not Harper Lee even truly consented to its release due to her possible diminishing mental capacity. Publishers countered these claims by saying Harper Lee herself thought her unpublished, original version of To Kill a Mockingbird was completely lost, and was overjoyed to hear it will be published. The publishers also said she is hard of hearing, but is completely sound in mind.  Lee’s publisher quoted her in his statement saying she was, “Happy as hell” about her book finally being released after all of these years, and I think most of her fans feel exactly the same way.