The Dead Zone is a novel by Stephen King published in 1979. It's about Johnny Smith, who is injured in an accident and enters a coma for nearly five years. When he emerges, he can see horrifying secrets, but he can't identify all the details of his "dead zone", an area of his brain that suffered permanent damage as the result of his accident. Much of the book plays against the historical backdrop of the 1970s. It has been suggested that the story might be based on self-proclaimed "psychic" Peter Hurkos, who received a head injury in a fall from a ladder, and afterward claimed to be able to know things about people by touching objects that belonged to them.