Can We Get a Ruling on This?

The American Bar Association’s ABA Journal today announced a trio of nominees for this year’s Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. “The finalists,” says Molly McDonough, the Journal’s editor and publisher, “represent the diversity of this year’s submissions, from a novel about Sri Lankan refugees seeking a new start, to the story of a trailblazing woman lawyer fighting for her clients in 1920s India, and finally a charming middle-school book featuring a spunky student who goes to court after he’s suspended for protesting homework. The characters are as inspiring as they are engaging.”

Contenders for this ninth annual prize are:

• The Boat People, by Sharon Bala (Doubleday)
• Class Action, by Steven B. Frank (HMH Books for Young Readers)
• The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey (Soho Crime)

Readers are encouraged to weigh in on which of these three books deserves to reign victorious. Click here to vote for your favorite among them. Online voting is scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday, June 30. The winner will be declared during “an August ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the National Book Festival. The winner will receive a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird signed by Harper Lee.”

According to a press release, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction “was authorized by the late Harper Lee [and was] established in 2011 by the University of Alabama Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law and the ABA Journal to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. It is given annually to a book-length work of fiction that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.”

Previous recipients of this honor are John Grisham (who won in both 2011 and 2014), Michael Connelly, Paul Goldstein, Deborah Johnson, Attica Locke, James Grippando, and C.E. Tobisman.