Sjáandinn

by Stephen King, Þórdís Bachmann (- Translator)

Johnny Smith liggur í dái í fjögur og hálft ár eftir alvarlegt bílslys. Þegar hann vaknar úr dáinu finnur hann að dulrænar gáfur sem hann uppgötvaði í æsku hafa magnast um allan helming. Einstakir hæfileikar hans til að skyggnast fram í tímann reynast honum þó fremur bölvun en blessun. Hann kærir sig ekki um að vita um framtíð fólks sem hann umgengst. En þegar á vegi hans verður miskunnarlaus maður með ógnvænlegar fyrirætlanir verður Johnny að beita öllum kröftum sínum til að koma í veg fyrir að skelfileg örlög rætist.

Eitt af meistaraverkum konungs sálfræðitryllanna!

Stephen King er höfundur yfir 50 skáldsagna sem allar hafa verið metsölubækur víða um heim. Eftir langt hlé koma bækur hans nú aftur út á íslensku.

395 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Magnús]

Það var mjög gaman að lesa þessa bók, hún ríghélt mér við efnið og var kláruð á tveimur kvöldum. Ánægjuefni að byrjað er að gefa Stephen King út á íslensku eftir nokkuð hlé, en þetta er samt merkilegt nokk fyrsta bókin sem ég les eftir hann. Þórdís Bachmann þýðir vel eins og vænta mátti. Ég ætla að ná mér í þá nýjustu eftir King sem var að koma út á ástkæra ylhýra sem ber titilinn 22. 11. 63 og er mikil bók en freistandi. Hinar eldri verða einnig settar á ratsjána því Sjáandinn (sem kom upphaflega út 1979 og er með fyrstu bókum Kings) hefur komið mér á bragðið.