Parable of the Sower

Description In 1949, George Orwell imagined 1984. In 1953, Ray Bradbury imagined 1999. In 1993, Octavia Butler imagined the 2020s. Her future is now. Wildfires. Global Warming. Racial Violence. Drug Addiction. Desperation. The dystopian future Butler imagined is sadly ringing ever truer to life as we know it—and is an ever more visceral warning for what our future will hold if we are not mindful. Parable of the Sower begins in the year 2023. Climate change and growing inequality have decimated the country, and the American middle class has been all but erased, with the last holdouts residing in fragile gated communities. The story centers on Lauren Oya Olamina, a young woman forced to flee her home on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Traveling north, she dreams of a redemption for humankind: Earthseed—a new religion, a new community, and a destiny to take root among the stars. With a small band of companions, she makes her way along the coast of California, fleeing wildfires and roving gangs of marauders and pyromaniacs in an apocalyptic wasteland. It is a dark story, and a grim warning of what may come—but one equally steeped in hope, as well as fear.