The Land of Sweet Forever

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Brought to you by Penguin.

*Narrated by Academy, Tony and Primetime Emmy Award winner Ellen Burstyn*

From the beloved bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a posthumous collection of newly discovered writing, offering a fresh perspective on the remarkable literary mind behind To Kill a Mockingbird.

Harper Lee remains a landmark figure in the American canon – thanks to Scout, Jem, Atticus, and the other indelible characters in her Pulitzer-winning debut, To Kill a Mockingbird; as well as for the darker, late-’50s version of small-town Alabama that emerged in Go Set a Watchman, her only other novel, published in 2015 after its rediscovery.

The Land of Sweet Forever combines Lee’s never-before-seen short stories and published nonfiction in a volume offering an unprecedented look at the development of her inimitable voice. Covering territory from the Alabama schoolyards of Lee’s youth to the luncheonettes and movie houses of midcentury Manhattan, The Land of Sweet Forever invites still-vital conversations about politics, equality, travel, love, fiction, art, the American South, and what it means to lead an engaged and creative life.

This collection comes with an introduction by Casey Cep, Harper Lee’s appointed biographer, which provides illuminating background for our reading of these stories and connects them both to Lee’s life and to her two novels.

'A writer with something significant to say' NEW YORK TIMES

'A rare literary phenomenon' VOGUE

'[She changed] the way we saw each other, and then the way we saw ourselves' PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

© Harper Lee 2025 (P) Harper Collins Publishers 2025

Critics Review

Unpublished they may have been, but these aren't half-baked sketches: they are stories written with all of Lee's character and descriptive brilliance
The Times
When To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the summer of 1960, it seemed to have sprung from nowhere, like an Alabamian Athena: a perfectly formed novel from an unknown southern writer without any evident precedent or antecedent. ... But no writer is without influences and aspirations: Harper Lee had, of course, come from somewhere and worked tremendously hard to become someone. ... How thrilling, then, to encounter a time capsule from the start of Lee's career ... help[ing] to explain how the little girl from South Alabama Avenue turned herself into a bestselling author. ... Brilliance unleashed on the page.
Guardian
Previously unseen short stories shed fresh light on Harper Lee's unlikely rise to fame
Guardian
Eight neatly typed short stories by the To Kill a Mockingbird author ... cast a new light on the literary giant
Sunday Times
Previously unseen stories and essays reveal Harper Lee's sharp wit, southern roots, and evolving voice. From small-town Alabama to big-city life, this posthumous collection offers a new window into one of America's literary icons.
i Paper
Harper Lee's wry humor is on ample display
Los Angeles Times
Allow[s] us to see the before and after of a literary sensation
i Paper
There's a sweetness of tone in the stories. I came away from reading this thinking I would have liked to know her.
Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Front Row
There's a joy and simplicity in the way she writes
Christina Newland, BBC Radio 4 Front Row
The stories are unmistakably Lee
The Telegraph

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