To Kill a Mockingbird

Novel by the US writer Harper Lee (born 1926) published in 1960. Set in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s, it is a dramatic depiction of racial tension and prejudice. Its central character, Atticus Finch (based on Lee's own father), is a lawyer who defends Tom Robinson, an African-American on trial accused of raping a white woman. The narrator is Atticus' daughter, Louise Finch (known as Scout), who recalls the events many years later. When the trial took place Scout was six years old, and as the events unfolded she witnessed both the fear, hatred, and hypocrisy of the town's white community, and also the quiet heroism of her father. An immediate best-seller, the novel was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and in 1962 was made into a successful film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.