The Boy Who Could See Death by Salley Vickers, book review: Exploring the irrational, the odd, and the fantastic

A young boy's "gift" becomes something of a curse in this unsettling tale

In the title story of Salley Vickers' new collection, The Boy Who Could See Death, the novelist tells the tale of Eli, who is seven years old when he predicts the death of his friend Tommy, who falls out of his treehouse and breaks his neck.

As Eli grows up he foretells the assassination of President Kennedy, the death of his metalwork teacher (to whom he presents a bunch of sweet peas) and the demise of his girlfriend's baby niece, a revelation that results in the breakdown of the relationship. His "gift" becomes something of a curse and he is so ostracised by society that by the end of his life he is transformed into something of a ghost himself.

Vickers, author of the bestselling Miss Garnet's Angel, is fascinated by the uncanny; and many of the stories here explore the irrational, the odd, the fantastic. In "The Churchyard", we witness the strange encounter between Sarah, a woman recovering from the breakdown of a relationship, and the ghost of a man whose wife had recently left him.

All of Vickers' stories have a tremendous sense of place; the author also has a gift for memorable imagery. The sky of the Welsh Marches in "The Boy Who Could See Death" is described as shining with a "hyacinth candescence", the ditches gleaming with pale yellow celandines.

In the author's note at the beginning of the collection Vickers writes of her inspiration for many of the tales in The Boy Who Could See Death. "I suppose that behind each story there is always another story." It seems ghosts feed the imagination of the writer like the spectres that, sometimes, haunt the living.