Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman might not have been as lost as we thought

The prequel to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is set to be released on July 14. But controversy about its history — and if Lee, 88, really wants it published at all — has grown thicker already. While the official story holds that Tonja B. Carter, Lee's lawyer, was reviewing an old typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird and happened upon the manuscript for its prequel, Go Set a Watchman, The New York Times has dug up a second, conflicting narrative.

According to the new story, Carter might actually have found the book in 2011, when viewing the contents of Lee's safe-deposit box during a Sotheby's auction house rare books appraisal. In the box, Carter — along with Justin Caldwell, a rare books expert, and Alice Lee, Harper's sister — are said to have discovered a typescript story that looked suspiciously like To Kill a Mockingbird, but clearly wasn't the same.

However, Carter said she had to leave the room and denied she had ever heard of a different manuscript being found that day.

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The implications of the second narrative could be hefty, though. While Go Set a Watchman has already rocketed to being the bestselling preorder in the publisher's history, some think that Harper Lee, despite assurances otherwise, might not actually want Mockingbird's prequel published. Adding to the suspicion is the fact that Alice Lee might not have approved of Carter or anyone else publishing the novel. The release of Go Set a Watchman was announced three months after Alice's death.