Jean Louise Finch, known as Scout, grows up in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression with her older brother Jem and their widowed father, the lawyer Atticus Finch. Their summers are spent with their friend Dill, playing games and daring each other to approach the house of the reclusive neighbour Arthur Radley, known to the children as Boo, about whom wild rumours circulate.
The children's world changes when Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of assaulting a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. As the trial approaches, the Finch family faces hostility from neighbours and classmates, and Scout and Jem begin to see the prejudice and fear beneath their town's polite surface.
Narrated by an adult Scout recalling her childhood, the novel blends humour and warmth with a serious examination of racial injustice, moral courage and empathy. Published in 1960, at the height of the civil rights movement, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and became a staple of school reading lists, though its treatment of race is now also debated.
Book details
| Author | Harper Lee |
|---|---|
| First published | 1960 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Classic |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 281 |
| Setting | Maycomb, Alabama, 1933-1935 |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1961 |
Themes
- Racial injustice
- Moral courage
- Childhood
- Empathy
- Prejudice
Who should read it
Readers of all ages who want a moving, accessible novel about justice and growing up in the American South.