Harper Lee's 2nd Novel Released To Eager Fans

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Harper Lee's second novel hits store shelves Tuesday, 55 years after her first.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning book "To Kill a Mockingbird" was required reading for many schools and forced many conversations about race and justice in America.

The author's new book, "Go Set a Watchman," is told from the perspective of the same main character, Scout, but is set 20 years later.

Before many have had a chance to flip through the pages, it's already caused controversy among readers and critics.

Whether it was the movie or the book, the story of a lawyer who defends a falsely accused black man of rape in 1930s, Jim Crow Alabama taught lessons of right and wrong.

Many people inside the downtown Minneapolis Barnes and Noble picked up a copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird" Tuesday to refresh their memory before they crack open the second novel.

"You never thought something like that would happen down south, so it was very inspiring," Barnes and Noble customer Martha Williams said.

It was a shock to many to hear that inside the pages, popular protagonist Atticus Finch seems a changed man. Scout discovers her 72-year-old father has ties to racist groups and is pro-segregation.

"That's hard to swallow, but I understand, so I'm anxious to read it," Williams said.

Lee wrote "Watchman" first, while living in New York in the 1950s. A publisher directed her to focus instead on a younger Scout in the book that would eventually become To Kill a Mockingbird.

"We've heard so much about it possibly being a first draft, so I want to remember all the details," Michele Peters said.

Lee's publisher says the second book is supposed to convey that there are often no clear lines in the way people view the world.

"We all have our flaws, we have our likes and dislikes," Howard McQuitter said. "It's part of the human condition."

There are more rumors surfacing about the possibility of even a third book by Harper Lee.

She is almost 90 years old and very private.

So we may never get to hear from her about exactly which book came first, or why she just decided to have this one published.