Anthem of a reluctant prophet - Joanne Proulx

Luke Hunter thinks he's joking when he tells a good friend exactly when - 8:37 the following morning - and how - hit by a red van from out of town - that friend will die. But when events unfold as Luke foretold, he wants none of it: he has enough problems being an average teenager without the added burden of seeing into the future - not to mention the ever-after. Terrified, but pretending not to be, Luke pushes his friends and family away, while the local news crew, a Christian fundamentalist preacher and a missing girl's frantic mother all draw nearer, seeking to profit from Luke's new-found 'gift'.

Written in clear, precise prose, Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet is a darkly comic coming-of-age novel about death and life.