Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; Seymour - an Introduction

A haunting and deeply personal portrait of family tragedy from the much-loved author of The Catcher in the Rye.

In 1942, Buddy Glass, second son of the eccentric Glass family, is in New York City on leave from military service to attend the wedding of his eldest brother, Seymour. But the wedding is not a happy one; it is overcast by a sense of strange suspense. And in the years that follow, Buddy is haunted by memories of his deeply complex and unhappy older brother, turning over in his mind everything that came to pass, wondering whether there might have been a sign he missed.

With painful tenderness and great subtlety, Salinger unfolds a story of family tragedy from the point of view of one character - Buddy - who has long been suspected to be a portrait of the author himself.