Book: To Kill a Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

This novel is set in the southern United States in the 1930s. The narrator is Scout Finch, a young girl who lives with her brother Jem and her lawyer father Atticus. A black man, Tom Robinson, is falsely accused by a poor, uneducated and prejudiced white family of rape. Atticus defends Tom in the gripping trial.

To Kill a Mockingbird deals with racism, and exposes the fear and ignorance that underlie much prejudice. The novel also deals with other types of oppression, such as the prejudice towards Boo Radley, a young man disabled emotionally by his hard childhood, and the painful struggle of Mrs Dubose against her drug addiction. This is a coming-of-age novel, in which Scout and Jem learn important lessons about prejudice, tolerance, courage and family.

This award-winning novel is one of the bestsellers of all time, deservedly so. Both young readers and adults will enjoy it and learn from it.