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To Kill a Mockingbird

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVELS EVER WRITTEN'

'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition.

 Classics Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction United States Women's Voices World Literature Thought-Provoking Heartfelt

Critic reviews

No one ever forgets this book
Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humor. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable (Truman Capote)
There is humour as well as tragedy in this book, besides its faint note of hope for human nature; and it is delightfully written in the now familiar Southern tradition
It would be difficult to argue that Harper Lee’s classic isn’t one of the most—if not the most—beloved of American novels
The enduring appeal of Mockingbird lies not only in the plot or characters; the book is a mirror, a source of endless and revelatory conversation about who we are and have been as a country
The names Scout and Atticus—and, perhaps above all, the name Harper—reflect a respect not just for the arc of history, but for the hope that it does indeed bend toward justice
Novels like To Kill a Mockingbird enlarge the heart and inspire the mind. They have the power to uplift readers and enrich them — no matter where those readers live or how they worship or the color of their skin
A first novel of such rare excellence
The rare classic that speaks to all ages about the less triumphant aspects of American history
A seminal American story, a touchstone of racial tolerance. . . . The book is a marvel, brilliantly structured, wonderfully told in the voice of Scout Finch, a stand-in for its tomboyish author as a child. . . . It’s a book determined to make young readers feel like grownups. . . and grownups feel like children
All stars
Most relevant
I just love this book so much! Harper Lee was a really amazing writer, completely worth the listen or read

Content

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Something I've always wanted to read but never got around to. This is truly a classic, a story that grips you from the very beginning, I almost enjoyed sitting stationary on the M5 just so I could finish it. It was brilliantly read by Sissy Spacek definitely worthy of 5*.

To Kill a Mockingbird

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Inspirational with excellent humour. Very well written and difficult to predict what happens until the end.

Excellent

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I'd never read this, to my shame, and I so glad I took a chance on it. It's a beautifully written and poignant wonder of a book, profoundly moving and exquisitely crafted.

As relevant today as it ever was.

Moving, inspirational and deserving of its status

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Loved the audio book. The narrator brought the southern dialect to light making it more enjoyable. This book was on my to-read list for a long time, very pleased.

A different world altogether

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