To Kill A Mockingbird

This novel is set in the small Alabama town of Maycomb during the Great Depression. It is told by Scout Finch, a young girl looking back on her childhood. She lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father, Atticus, a lawyer respected for his calm decency. The children spend their days playing, going to school and trying to lure out a reclusive neighbour who frightens them.

The story widens when Atticus agrees to defend a Black man accused of a serious crime against a white woman. Through the children's eyes, the book looks at racial prejudice, courage, empathy and the loss of innocence. It is gentle and funny in places, serious in others, and remains a central work of American literature.