The book was about a teenager in Wales who how can see visuals of other peoples thoughts. He can’t hear anything so doesn’t know for sure what they are thinking, he can only see what they are visualizing. His older brother is involved with a militant Welsh Nationalist group, but he can’t read his brother’s mind since the brother doesn’t “think in pictures”.
He keeps seeing thoughts of grey squiggles on a mustard yellow background but doesn’t know who they are coming from (it’s the bomber).
He eventually realizes his grandmother had an affair with his grandfather’s friend Hugh. The grandfather and Hugh were killed in a mining accident. The grandfather was also psychic so probably knew about the affair.
I read this book in the mid 1970’s but it might have been from the 1960’s.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
The Gift, by Peter Dickinson. 1973.
Davy Price is getting intrusive visions of someone’s very disordered mind…a man planning to plant a bomb. Davy names this person “Wolf,” and is drawn into a dangerous cat & mouse game.
I read this in middle school, and stayed up very late to finish. The images Davy sees stuck with me so hard that by the next day in art class, I attempted to recreate them.
I remember the book being particularly dark, which I liked, so I went on to read Dickinson’s book, Eva, and just wasn’t impressed.
That is it, thank you very much. After looking it up on Goodreads I realize I had forgotten most of the plot. I just remember the images. I tried to draw them as well.
And I also tried to read Eva but didn’t get very far.