Since the announcement of Harper Lee’s forthcoming novel Go Set a Watchman, residents of Lee’s hometown, Monroeville, Alabama, along with the general public, have questioned whether or not publishers are taking advantage of the eighty-eight year old author. Recently, however, Lee’s lawyer Tonja Carter insists that the author is “lucid.”

[Lee] is a very strong, independent, and wise woman who should be enjoying the discovery of her long lost novel,” Carter said. “Instead, she is having to defend her own credibility and decision making.