‘ Watchman’ sales are a wonder to see

Publicity, and controversy, vault Harper Lee’s novel

At lunchtime on a recent weekday, Scott Robbins grabbed a copy of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman off the welltrafficked main display table at Barnes & Noble’s Fifth Avenue store.

“I want to see what all the controversy’s about,” said the ad man, 48.

Controversy, and curiosity, are driving huge sales of the heavily preordered novel, which will land at No. 1 on USA TODAY’s BestSelling Books list on Thursday.

Published on July 14, the book, only the second from the author of the 1960 Southern classic To Kill a Mockingbird, has made headlines for its depiction of Atticus Finch as a bigot.

And while some Mockingbird fans said on Twitter that it would break their hearts to read Watch-

man, the publicity is paying off in sales, despite mixed- to- negative reviews by critics.

Publisher Harper-Collins says more than 1.1 million copies of Watchman have sold in print, e- book and audio formats ( the audio is read by Reese Witherspoon), which makes it the fastest- selling book in company history.

Barnes & Noble says Watchman’s first- day sales surpassed that of any other adult trade fic- tion title, including Dan Brown’s 2009 novel The Lost Symbol, the previous record holder. B& N said it expects Watchman to be its best- selling book of 2015. ( B& N declined to provide sales figures.)

At Amazon, Watchman has been the No. 1 best seller in print since its release and is also No. 1 on the Kindle Best Sellers list. ( Amazon updates its lists hourly.)

All the controversy over the hero of To Kill a Mockingbird “certainly hasn’t hurt” Watchman sales, says Sara Nelson, Amazon editorial director. “Atticus is such a touchstone, a lightning rod, he just inspires commentary and attention.”

Mockingbird sales are also up. The classroom staple will be No. 2 on USA TODAY’s list on Thursday, climbing from No. 7.

At Barnes & Noble’s Fifth Avenue store, Andy Ensor was buying both Mockingbird, which he has never read, and Watchman. “I know they’re important books, and I want to join in the conversation,” said Ensor, 43, who works at publisher W. W. Norton.

His colleague Ashley Horna, 30, a Mockingbird fan, was buying a copy of Watchman, although she said she is nervous about this less admirable version of Atticus Finch. Watchman, set in the 1950s during desegregation, was written before Mockingbird and only recently rediscovered.

“You can’t avoid everything on social media and in the news about the book,” Horna said.

Watchman is also selling well at independent bookstores. “The book is flying out of here,” says Lori Fazio of R. J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn.

JUNG YEON- JE, AFP/ GETTY IMAGES Go Set a Watchman finds Atticus Finch many years removed and in a different light from the man readers knew in To Kill a Mockingbird.