Salinger halts ripoff book

The publication of a book that novelist J.D. Salinger said ripped off his classic The Catcher in the Rye was halted by a United States federal judge.

Judge Deborah Batts ruled in favour of Salinger after the reclusive writer sued last month to block publication in the US of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye written by Swedish author Fredrik Colting under the pen name John David California.

The judge said Colting had borrowed "substantively and stylistically" from Catcher.