HarperCollins has just revealed the book jacket for “Go Set a Watchman,” Harper Lee’s second novel that will be published this July. The cover is designed in a style that evokes the mid 1950s -- when the manuscript was written -- featuring a tree in the foreground and a train in the distance. According to her publisher, the book is set in Maycomb, Alabama, 20 years after “To Kill a Mockingbird,” just as the civil rights movement is coming to the forefront, as Scout Finch is "forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.”
"This design is perfect- it draws on the style of the decade the book was written, but with a modern twist," reads today's statement from publisher Michael Morrison. "GO SET A WATCHMAN begins with Scout's train ride home, but more profoundly, it is about the journey Harper Lee's beloved characters have taken in the subsequent 20 years of their lives."
The discovery of the sixty-year-old manuscript by Lee’s lawyer Tonja Carter caused a hailstorm of controversy, as Harper Lee fans questioned whether the 88-year-old author was being taken advantage of, considering reports about her poor health and the fact she had never shown interest in publishing the work in the past. Recently, a state agency reviewing elder abuse claims found that Lee "has opinions and seems to be aware of what is going on with her book and the book deal.” The investigation is ongoing.
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