The Ghostwriters

Harper Lee did not write To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee's book was initially titled, Go Set a Watchman, and after Truman Capote secretly revised the tale as a favor, the resulting Mockingbird won a Pulitzer. Ironically, that prize always eluded Truman, even after the publication of In Cold Blood, a masterpiece attributed to him...but actually penned by someone else-and that someone was Harper Lee! The astonishing role-reversal was arranged when the lifelong friends recognized that Truman possessed the sensitivity required to create Mockingbird's down-to-earth characters. Conversely, the intrepid Ms. Lee's inherent grit would give In Cold Blood its needed fierceness. The Ghostwriters is a sweeping literary eye-opener that not only probes the bizarre Capote/Lee relationship, but also shines a light on idiosyncrasies that define homespun Alabama...the scorched Kansas plains...and New York's decadent upper crust haunts.