New Introduction by GLORIA STEINEM
Parable of the Sower is the Butlerian odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape, and murder. When one small community is overrun, Lauren Olamina, an 18-year-old black woman with the hereditary trait of "hyperempathy"—which causes her to feel others’ pain as her own—sets off on foot along the dangerous coastal highways, moving north into the unknown.
Don't miss the second book the Parable series, Parable of the Talents!
Happy Birthday, Octavia Butler
MacArthur Genius Winner, Grande Dame of Science Fiction, and founding author of Seven Stories Press, Octavia E. Butler was born on June 22, 1947. She would have been 73 today. We miss her every day, and we’re incredibly grateful for the work and legacy she has left behind.