Fairfax to pre-publish ‘Go Set a Watchman’ first chapter in Australia

The first chapter of Harper Lee’s forthcoming novel Go Set a Watchman (William Heinemann) will be published by Fairfax websites this afternoon, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

The extract, as well as an excerpt from the audiobook edition narrated by Reese Witherspoon, will be available on the websites of the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Brisbane Times, WA Today and the Canberra Times at 2:01pm on 10 July. The chapter will also be printed in the ‘Spectrum’ sections of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age on Saturday 11 July.

Fairfax Media’s national entertainment editor Monique Farmer said, ‘We’re thrilled to have secured the rights to the first chapter of Go Set a Watchman … The plot details have been closely guarded, and little is known about the story, so it’s exciting to be giving our readers a sneak peek of what happened next to Scout and Atticus Finch.’

Go Set a Watchman, a sequel to Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, follows an adult Scout Finch as she travels from New York City to her childhood town of Maycomb, Alabama, to visit her father Atticus.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal will publish the first chapter on their websites in the UK and US respectively.

Category: Local news