To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of all time, famously published only one novel (up until its controversial sequel was published in 2015 just before her death). Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and quickly became a literary classic. Through the innocent wide eyes of a clever young girl named Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch, the novel examines racism in the American South.

Its iconic characters, most notably the sympathetic and just lawyer and father Atticus Finch, served as role models and changed perspectives in the United States during a period of high racial tensions. To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962, giving the story and its characters new life and influence in American society.

Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/2657.To_Kill_a_Mockingbird