A superb novel, timeless

The story takes place in the 1930s in a small town in Alabama, in the southern United States. It reflects the struggle of part of the population, Mr Finch, the father of the young narrator, Scout, against racial segregation. This theme is not insignificant for that State South in the early 1960. It is part of what will make the success of this novel. Indeed, Alabama 1960, date of the publication of the novel, whites still violently opposed to the emancipation of blacks. It is this state that apart from the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Segregation will be abolished until 1964. If the story happens in 1930, in a recession, it remains particularly present when the book came out. And we can say it that way today.

From a historical perspective, this novel full of references: the crisis of 1929, racial segregation, the Civil War, Prohibition, the Great Depression, Hitler came to power and his first anti-Semitic measures, the role played by Roosevelt and his wife in the anti-apartheid struggle ... all told with undeniable educational quality.

The narrator is a little girl of 6 to 8 years, faced by the legal profession of his father, Atticus Finch, prejudice and lack of courage of a small town in front of white judge Tom Robinson, a black accused raping a white girl. The narrative is fluid and allows to put in great detail the background. The history is very rich, reads very easily, which makes it a generational novel, able to captivate teens and feed the reflection of their parents.

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