What's the frequency of the letter "i" in:
Q: Novel set in a future where telepaths are persecuted; one is tricked into betraying herself Here's what I remember about the book:

*

*It was published in the 1980's as a mass market paperback.

*The cover features people in white jumpsuits.

*One of the telepathic characters is a professional/Olympic? swimmer.
The authorities trick her into betraying herself by imagining that they are  pounding on her door. When she responds, they know she is a telepath.

*Another character is a young orphan boy with a habit of hiding food for later.


A: Probably not your book unless it was a re-print or retelling of the same story, but it sounds a lot like John Wyndham's novel "The Chrysalids" originally published in 1955 (which incidentally inspired the song "Crown Of Creation" by Jefferson Airplane in 1968).  Telepaths were hunted down as the "new witches" of the post-apocaplyptic future; they banded together in small tribes.

A: This is probably Sideshow (1988) by W. R. Thompson.  The cover does indeed have a group of people dressed in white, and it is a classic 1980s mass-market style cover:

Birche, one of the telepaths, was a competitive swimmer, but didn't make the Olympics:

"Yes." Birche hesitated, then said, "I almost made the '96 Olympics, but I wasn't fast enough in the qualification trials. I would have made it if my legs weren't so damned short."

The trick of faking Birche out at the door happens as you describe:

The pounding at her door startled her. "Birche Hol-stein?" The deep, powerful voice matched the pounding. "Birche Holstein, are you in there?"
"Just a minute," Birche said loudly. Who would want to see her at this time of night? she wondered. "Who are you?"
"Open the door!" The pounding got louder. "We're from the MHB. Open the door or we'll break it down!"
They really are from the MHB, she thought—and this time it was no dream. She pulled the door open and saw two men in the blue uniforms of MHB field orderlies. "What do you want?"
"We have orders to detain you for observation."
Birche hesitated, caught in a moment of surprise. His lips hadn't moved; he'd thought to her. The pounding and the doomsday voice had been thoughts, a simple trick to prove that she was a telepath.

The blurb tells us that telepaths were hunted and persecuted:

It is the year 2000, and the U.S. sways under the deepest Depression it has ever experienced. Radical groups proliferate, drawing their members from the jobless and the frightened. The Iron Guard: New-Nazis. The New Redeemers: Religious fanatics. Sere: an extremist "save-the-ecology" group. The only group that might save the country are the telepaths and they are hunted by all sides and declared legally insane.


user
The given text has one hundred and forty-one "i"s.
assistant