Why people around the world love ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Fifty-five years after it was first published, Nelle Harper Lee’s debut novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” remains one of the most beloved books of all time. Everywhere. 

Told through the eyes of “Scout,” the six-year-old daughter of devoted father and crusading lawyer Atticus Finch who bravely defends a black man wrongly accused of raping a white girl in Maycomb, Alabama, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has touched the hearts of readers of all ages and nationalities.

It's hard to overstate the incredible success of this book, which won the Pulitzer Prize and was turned into a film starring Gregory Peck as Finch, for which he was awarded an Oscar.

"To Kill a Mockingbird," or TKAM as it's known among its fans, has sold more than 30 million copies around the world and has been translated into 40 languages. It has long been a staple of high school curriculums in the United States, Australia, Britain and elsewhere and frequently appears on bestseller of all time lists.  

In 2006 British librarians said it was the book they would most recommend. The Bible was second. Yep, Atticus Finch outranked Jesus Christ.

But why has a coming-of-age story about racial inequality, social prejudice and one man’s futile fight for justice in the deep south of America during the Great Depression resonated with so many readers around the world? And continues to do so?

Here are a few reasons: 

It "has all the factors of a great read. It is touching and funny but has a serious message about prejudice, fighting for justice and coming of age," British librarian Diana Ashcroft told the Guardian.

“It's one of those life-changing reads," Garry Burnett, an English teacher in Grimsby, Britain, told the BBC.

"It's not just exam fodder but something that draws an emotional response, particularly in children. But there are parts of the novel I find too moving to read. As a parent, I identify with the strength of the father, who is prepared to set an example to his children, even though it might cost him."

"This is the perfect book, not a single word out of place. I think I've read it 20 times," Luisa Pauletto wrote on the Australian ABC's The Book Club website.

"The new CD set read by Sissy Spacek is a welcome variation on reading it — especially as I'm afraid I will read it too many times and get sick of it. My life would be poorer for that."

So it comes as no surprise that Tuesday's announcement that Lee, who is now 88 and living in an assisted-care facility in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, will publish a second novel in July has been met with rapturous applause among her legions of fans. The news is a trending topic on Twitter from the United States and Mexico to South Africa and France.

Lee penned “Go Set a Watchman” in the 1950s but set it aside to write “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the request of her publisher at the time.

It was though to be “lost” until it was miraculously discovered by Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, in the fall of 2014. It had been attached to an original copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

"In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called 'Go Set a Watchman.' It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman and I thought it a pretty decent effort,” Lee said in a statement published by HarperCollins Publishers, which has the North American rights to the novel. 

“My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout. I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told. I hadn't realized it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it.

“After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."

But some people are questioning the timing of the so-called discovery and whether in fact Lee, who suffered a stroke in 2007 and is in poor health, gave her permission for it to be published. It wouldn't be the first time, after all, that the reclusive author was allegedly duped. In 2013 Lee settled a lawsuit she had brought against her former literary agent Samuel Pinkus in which the author alleged Pinkus had tricked her into signing over the copyright to her famous novel.

Lee’s sister Alice, who acted as the author’s lawyer and gatekeeper for decades, died late last year, around the same time the long-lost novel was found.