The sight A novel

Golding (The Hidden) hits her stride in this unsettling thriller centered on a young woman's Cassandra-like powers. Faith Harrington, whose family operates and performs in a traveling circus, inherited an unwelcome gift from her great-grandmother Daisy: the ability to foresee someone else's death. When she was 10, Faith accurately predicted that her brother Tommy would die after falling through the ice covering a frozen lake. Twelve years after that tragedy, Faith has started wearing a patch over one eye in an attempt to limit her abilities. During a confrontation with an arrogant circus patron, she loses her temper and predicts his death by drowning. A video recording of the episode winds up online and Faith is fired from the carnival. As she struggles to support herself and her dying mother, Faith begins exploiting her gift for paying patrons--which works well enough until she has a vision of her own involvement in one of their deaths. Golding imbues the somewhat familiar premise with thoughtful characterizations, painting a convincing portrait of the emotional toll that Faith's gifts take on her. It's a memorable and moving trip into the paranormal. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (Sept.)

The child of an English family circus is cursed with a very special brand of second sight. Faith Harrington sees dying people. If she looks into your eyes, she can tell you the exact circumstances of your death and make a ballpark prediction--sometimes a much more accurate prediction--of when it will come. Faith's visions, a legacy from her great-grandmother Daisy Harrington, are clearly an equivocal gift. Not many people want to know how they're going to die. Nor is Faith happy with her ability. Ever since her childhood vision of a family tragedy she was unable to prevent, she's wanted to be rid of it, at one point even poking out her left eye in an attempt to blind herself that failed when she couldn't bring herself to stab her right eye as well. That moment brought her face to face for the first time with Betsy, a future nurse who's remained her only friend as her family members, the owners of Harrington and Sons circus, have gradually pushed her away. Faith loses the opportunity to ride her beloved horse, Macha, in the ring, loses the good faith of Uncle Billy Ward, her nominal partner in the show, and loses her claim to a private life when her prediction of TV personality Joey Standish's death is caught on a video that goes viral, branding her the Oracle of Death. Finally losing her financial stake in the circus, which she's been counting on to underwrite the medical care her cancer-stricken mother needs, forces her to deal with people who are willing to pay to learn the details of their deaths, and the mounting problems with those dealings pave the way to a shattering climax. A fairy tale--tinged thriller that may be the saddest novel about circus folk you've ever read. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.