Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee's highly anticipated second novel, broke records at one of the world's largest publishing houses.
Lee's newly-released novel is the fastest selling book in the history of HarperCollins Publishers, the company announced Monday. More than 1.1 million copies of the book have already been sold in the U.S. and Canada. (Tweet This)
"First week sales of Go Set a Watchman have far exceeded our expectations," said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers in a press release.
Lee wrote the novel in the 1950s, before Pulitzer prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. But the story is set some 20 years later.
It features the prominent character "Scout" as an adult woman on her journey to visit her father, a lawyer who defended a black man facing charges of rape and robbery. Like Lee's first book, the story takes place against a backdrop of racism and civil rights tensions.
Literary critics remain divided over the novel's caliber and its statements on race. But the book has been flying off shelves. At the New York Public Library, there are over one thousand holds on the book.