The Dead Zone is a novel by Stephen King published in 1979.
This tells the story of John Smith, a high school teacher in a small town in Maine who is tragically injured in an auto accident that leaves him in a coma for almost five years. When he awakens, he is heartbroken to learn that his promising future has vanished, his fiancée has married someone else, and he has mysteriously acquired the psychic ability to touch a person (or an object that person has touched) and see the tragic events of the person's past, present or future.
Despite using his newfound ability to identify and capture a local serial killer, Smith considers his gift a curse and is loathe to use it, but when he touches the maverick political candidate Greg Stillson, he sees a vision of an apocalyptic future so terrible that, after morally struggling with his conscience, decides he must take steps to prevent Stillson from becoming president by any means necessary.
The inspiration of the story was a real-life house painter, Peter Hurkos, said to have become psychic as a result of injuries incurred after falling off a ladder.
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