During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well-in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind 'when you really see them.' By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often.One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the United States. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding.

At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley.

Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus-three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman.

He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.' I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. 'When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

To kill a mockingbird book cover