Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Some books feel like a warning. This one feels like a prophecy.

Parable of the Sower is the highly acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from the award-winning Octavia E. Butler, a book John Green of the New York Times says “pairs well with 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale.” This edition arrives with a stirring new foreword by Hugo Award-winner N. K. Jemisin.

The story unfolds in a California unraveling. Global climate change and economic collapse have splintered society into chaos, where water is scarce and desperation lurks beyond every gate. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives sheltered inside a walled community with her preacher father and neighbors—but she carries a secret burden. She suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity that makes her feel the pain of everyone around her.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren sees what the others refuse to. And when survival demands more than hiding behind walls, her fight becomes something far greater: the birth of a new faith, and a startling vision of human destiny.

Butler was the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and her voice here is both fierce and tender. This is dystopian fiction at its most human—a coming-of-age story wrapped in a survival epic, wrapped in a quiet kind of hope.

It’s the sort of novel you’ll want to read slowly, then press into a friend’s hands. Perfect for a stormy afternoon by the cove, with the sea churning just outside the window.

Come browse. This one has been waiting on the shelf for a reader like you.

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