To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

For anyone not familiar with the story, this is the tale of a racially charged rape trial of a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been wrongly accused of raping a white woman. The story is set in a fictional town in the deep south during The Great Depression.

The book is told from the point of view of a six year old girl nicknamed Scout whose father, Atticus Finch has been appointed as the lawyer for Tom Robinson. Scout and her brother Jem have been raised by their widowed father with the assistance of their African American maid, Calpurnia. Atticus is a loving and doting father who uses the occasion of the trial to teach Scout about humanity and the social injustices in their world.

Scout, Jem and Dill, a boy in the neighborhood who visits his aunt each summer, are also caught up in the mystery of a notorious and reclusive neighbor named "Boo" Radley who is a sort of boogeyman to the children of the neighborhood. The trio are determined to see "Boo" Radley and learn the mystery of his existance.

Atticus tries to shield the children from the controversy of the trial but the kids defend their father as a good man when townpeople refer to him as a "nigger lover". Against Atticus' wishes, the children see the trial from the "coloured balconey" as the African American Pastor of the local church wants the children to see what an honorable and courageous man their father is.

This is an absolutely perfect book. I love the voice of Scout and the story is so artfully woven together. I hope I have not left behind the best book I am to read. The story is both heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time.

Though Harper Lee's publisher only expected the book to sell a few thousand copies, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize one year after its release. It is considered a classic of American Literature and is taught in schools across the country.

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