50 best cult books

Albert Camus, Joseph Heller, JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon are among the authors chosen by our critics for the 50 best cult books

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)

By Telegraph Reporters

A cult book may be hard to define but one thing is for sure: you know a cult book when you see one.

Cult books are somehow, intangibly, different from simple bestsellers – though many of them are that. And people have passionate feelings on both sides:

Our critics present a selection of the most notable cult writing from the past two centuries. Some is classic. Some is catastrophic. All of it had the power to inspire . . .

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Occupy movement attracts support of top authors

Underwritten … Occupy movement protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral, London – now supported by leading authors. Photograph: Andy Hall

Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky among star names added to online petition at occupywriters.com.

By Alison Flood

As anti-capitalism protests spread around the world, a growing group of almost 1,200 authors including Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman has publicly announced its support for the Occupy movement.

An online petition at occupywriters.com declaring the writers’ backing for Occupy Wall Street and its sister movements in other countries, which have seen thousands of protesters marching against the global financial system, has been signed by 1,190 authors and counting, including the Pulitzer prize winners Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham as well as Alice Walker, Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, Jonathan Lethem, Ann Patchett, Noam Chomsky, AL Kennedy, Ursula K Le Guin and Donna Tartt. “We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement around the world,” says the petition.

Author Jeff Sharlet and journalist Kiera Feldman created the website after Rushdie offered his support via Twitter. Sharlet said the site was already “stunningly busy”, with more than 100,000 visitors a day and a backlog of 1,000 writers to be vetted, “just to make sure they’re real people”.

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