From birth David Selig was both blessed and cursed with the ability to look into the innermost thoughts and hearts of people around him. As he grew he learnt to protect himself from the things he did not want to hear and eavesdropped on all that he did, using his powers for the pursuit of pleasure. But now having reached middle-age, David’s powers are fading, slowly stranding him in a world he does not know how to handle, leaving him living on the outside but dying inside.

Universally acclaimed as Silverberg’s masterpiece, this is the harrowing and chilling story of a man who squandered his remarkable powers and then had to learn what it was like to be human.