The extraordinary, prescient New York Times bestseller - a modern classic about a young girl fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world. 'If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it's one written in the past that has already begun to come true.This is what makes Parable of the Sower even more impressive than it was when first published' GLORIA STEINEM'Unnervingly prescient and wise' YAA GYASIWe are coming apart.We're a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time. America is a place of chaos, where violence rules and only the rich and powerful are safe.Lauren Olamina, a young woman with the extraordinary power to feel the pain of others as her own, records everything she sees of this broken world in her journal. Then, one terrible night, everything alters beyond recognition, and Lauren must make her voice heard for the sake of those she loves. Soon, her vision becomes reality and her dreams of a better way to live gain the power to change humanity forever. Lauren's story continues in Parable of the Talents. PRAISE FOR OCTAVIA E. BUTLER'In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time... for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler's novel may be unmatched' NEW YORKER'Butler's prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision' GUARDIAN'Octavia Butler was a visionary' VIOLA DAVIS'One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century.One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had' JUNOT DIAZ'An icon of the Afrofuturism world, envisioning literary realms that placed black characters front and center' VANITY FAIR'Butler writes with such a familiarity that the alien is welcome and intriguing.She really artfully exposes our human impulse to self-destruct' LUPITA NYONG'O