The Catcher in the Rye 'sequel' to be published

Before his death, lawyers acting for JD Salinger called the book ‘a rip-off, pure and simple’. Photograph: Amy Sancetta/AP If you really want to hear about it … the chances are you will soon be able to, unless you live in north America. A sequel to JD Salinger's novel of teenage angst, The Catcher in the Rye, written by an obscure Swedish publisher, is to be issued in most of the world with the reluctant acquiescence of the reclusive author's estate.
Although the book, 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, was briefly published in Britain and Sweden two years ago, lawyers acting for Salinger blocked publication in the US with a court ruling in July 2009, six months before Salinger's death at the age of 91.
Now, according to Publishers' Weekly and the Bookseller, agreement has been reached to publish the book, which takes an aged character, who is evidently the protagonist of the original book, Holden Caulfield, on a journey similar to his original odyssey, escaping from an old people's home back to his old haunts in New York. Echoing the original, it ends with its character, 76-year-old Mr C, standing near a carousel in Central Park.
The book is the work of the Swedish author and publisher Frederik Colting, who originally wrote under a pseudonym, John David California.
When the case came to court, the book was described by Salinger's lawyers as "a rip-off, pure and simple", but Colting's lawyers said it was a parody, not a sequel. In her ruling granting a prohibition, the judge, Deborah Batts, described it as an "infringement … lacking in credibility".
It had, she added, "taken well more from Caulfield in both substance and style than is necessary for the alleged transformative purpose of criticising Salinger and his attitudes and behaviour". Reviewers who saw it described it less charitably as fan fiction and harmless nonsense.
Colting's lawyers were granted an appeal hearing and Publishers' Weekly says that under a settlement signed last month he has agreed not to publish or distribute his book in the US or Canada until the expiry of copyright on the original, but is allowed to publish elsewhere. Publishers in six countries are said to be interested.
There are restrictions, though: Colting is barred from dedicating it to Salinger, mentioning The Catcher in the Rye or even referring to the previous litigation. He told the magazine: "We've come to an agreement with the Salinger Trust but I am afraid I cannot go into any specifics. Let's just say that the book will be published in a number of countries this year and I am very pleased with that."
Or, as the teenage Caulfield himself would have said: "Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."