1001 Book Challenge - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Rather an appropriate choice, as last night I watched Capote (thoughts? I was a little disappointed, to tell the truth). Anyway, considered one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it is perhaps indicative of the stature of To Kill a Mockingbird that most people who haven’t read it are at least familiar with the core story. Set in America’s South in the 1930’s, a judicious white lawyer, Atticus Finch, is appointed to defend a black man charged with rape. What follows is the community’s reaction to the trial, highlighting the strong, racist stereotypes that the world fought, and is still fighting, to overcome. Told brilliantly through the eyes of precocious seven-year-old ‘Scout’ Finch, a girl not afraid of a fist fight, we can see why Atticus was voted by the American Film Institute (AFI) as the Number 1 “Greatest Hero” of all time. Man, Father, Citizen––he is them all, and then some. harper lee to kill a mockingbird