Harper Lee's new novel "Go Set a Watchman," the highly awaited second book after "To Kill a Mockingbird," has beaten the "Harry Potter" series in Amazon's pre-ordered print.
Amazon, an online retailer, revealed that the novel, which is to be released on July 14, has already reached the number one spot as the top-selling book on the website. "Go Set a Watchman" follows Lee's classic "To Kill A Mockingbird," after 55 years.
It surpassed the record set by J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and last installment about the teenage, British boy wizard.
Reuters reported that the online retail giant did not present figures for the two books mentioned, but publisher Harper, a trademark of HarperCollins, detailed that it had requested an initial U.S. copy of 2 million for Lee's sequel.
In February, Harper took the literary community by surprise when it declared that it would publish a novel that only a handful know of its existence.
Harper previously mentioned that the manuscript came about recently after Lee's legal adviser found it in a safety deposit container together with the original hard copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman," was written in the 1950s even before she authored her 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning chef d'oeuvre.
According to BBC News, Lee has shied away from the spotlight after releasing "To Kill a Mockingbird" and will not be expected to show up in public for the novel's promotion. Lee, 89, now lives in an assisted-living facility in Monroeville, Alabama.
Nevertheless, whether she shows up or not for the book's release, avid followers of Scout eagerly awaits.
The Telegraph gave details about the book: Its setting is two decades after what transpired in "To Kill a Mockingbird," when Jean Louise Finch also known as Scout returns to Maycomb, Alabama, her home, to call on her ailing father. She remains as boyish, rebellious and strong-willed as ever when readers came across her as a child.
However, it is through Henry Clinton, her likely suitor and family friend that revealed the woman Scout has blossomed into. He has watched her growth from "an overalled, fractious, gun-slinging creature into a reasonable facsimile of a human being," who "still moved like a thirteen-year-old boy and abjured most feminine adornment," but attracted him nonetheless. "She was easy to look at and easy to be with most of the time, but she was in no sense of the word an easy person," the chapter continued.
Inevitably, Harper Lee's new novel may not be the last book since there are reports that she has an unfinished true crime copy that she started writing 30 years ago.
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