J. D. Salinger, the author of the brilliant novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” was one of the most mysterious figures in world literature for more than half a century. All attempts to find out the true reason for his disappearance from public life at the zenith of his fame failed. As a result of a ten-year investigation, which took another three years after the death of Salinger himself, David Shields and Shane Salerno scrupulously traced not only the writer’s life path, but also his inner, spiritual path . Trying to unravel Salinger's mystery, they spent more than $1 million, conducted more than 200 interviews with people on five continents, studied diaries, court testimony and documents from private archives, and obtained rare, never before published photographs. They reconstructed the fate. the writer bit by bit - from his youth and his landing in the first wave of landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, to the forests of New Hampshire, where he took refuge from the world under the shadow of the Vedanta religion, which forced Salinger's real family to compete with his fictional Glass family. Sincerity and The depth of insight into Salinger's personality allowed Shields and Salerno to accurately and completely convey the genius's personal views on love, literature, fame, religion, war and death. Their book is actually a self-portrait of the writer, which he himself never decided to show to the public.