Sequels I’d like to see

With Harper Lee’s sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set A Watchman coming out about the same time as my debut novel The Bomber, I thought about a few more sequels or prequels I would like to see.

1. Sequel To Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

Titled ‘Go Catch a Rye Bird’ this novel revisits Holden Caulfield ten years later. He is no longer the angsty teen but now a rather melancholy adult living in New York. He dreams of leaving the city and his job working as a writer on a small lifestyle magazine. He wants to head up into New England and live on a small farm, but with his girlfriend pregnant and his money running out, he has to find a solution to his problems. He tries to get a job as a writer but the New Yorker keeps rejecting his short stories, his parents won’t give him any more money and the city, the huge cold place it can be, is slowly driving him mad. His friends won’t talk to him and his girlfriend is almost fed up with him. Will he have the courage to stay and fight or will he thumb a ride and disappear?

J D Salinger’s estate, having found the manuscript in a closet, hope the big five publishers will become involved in a bidding war for the rights and have stated that: “This is exactly what J D Salinger would have wanted. He loved Caulfield and this book shows the growth of the character. Salinger was a very out going person and loved to make himself available to the public.” Expected to be released mid July 2015.

2. Prequel to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

This novel set in the years before World War One focuses again on the life of Paul Bäumer. This manuscript to be titled, A Happy Youth, focuses on Baumer’s childhood and the experiences of being a boy growing up in pre-war Germany. A much lighter and happier novel we get to know the boy who became the soldier. Ignored by his parents, Baumer experiences adventures in his home town and nearby forest, one day finding a man who has hanged himself in a milking shed the boy is forced to confront the harsh separation between youthful joy and adult trauma. The novel traces his life up the point where a teacher urges him to join the German Army, in order that he might see action ‘before the war ends at Christmas.’

3. Sequel to Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell.

Titled Nineteen Eighty Five, revisit the zany and whacky antics of Airstrip One in Oceania. Visit Winston Smith as he struggles to find love and a hiding spot. Think Catch-22 meets Slaughterhouse-five. This novel has a mixture of darkness and magic, having been co-authored by Stephen King and J K Rowling.