Salinger, J – The Bell Bookshop

Catcher In The Rye

Emma — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

‘If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.’

The first of J. D. Salinger’s four books to be published, The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most widely read and beloved of all contemporary American novels.

‘The handbook of the adolescent heart’ The New Yorker

Raise High The Roof

Emma — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A haunting portrait of family tragedy from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye

‘He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to us: our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet…’

These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass – the eldest son of J. D. Salinger’s fictional Glass family – as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy.

‘The Glasses are one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully-realized families in all fiction’ The New York Times

Franny & Zooey

Emma — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A sharp and poignant snapshot of the crises of youth – from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye

'Everything everybody does is so – I don't know – not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and – sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way.'

First published in the New Yorker as two sequential stories, 'Franny' and 'Zooey' offer a dual portrait of the two youngest members of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family.

'Salinger's masterpiece' Guardian

For Esme With Love & Squalor

Emma — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of nine exceptional stories from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye

‘This is the squalid, or moving, part of the story, and the scene changes. The people change, too. I’m still around, but from here on in, for reasons I’m not at liberty to disclose, I’ve disguised myself so cunningly that even the cleverest reader will fail to recognize me.’

This collection of nine stories includes the first appearance of J. D. Salinger’s fictional Glass family, introducing Seymour Glass in the unforgettable ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’.

‘The most perfectly balanced collection of stories I know’ Ann Patchett