Parable of the Sower (Parable, 1)
From a celebrated, award-winning author, a modern classic about a young girl fighting for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, perfect for fans of N.K. Jemisin and Margaret Atwood.
Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding social chaos and anarchy caused by climate change and economic crisis. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy--a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions.
Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
Includes a foreword by LeVar Burton and an afterword by N. K. Jemisin
Lauren's story continues in The Parable of the Talents.
"In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Octavia Butler's 'Parable' books may be unmatched."--The New Yorker
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
Throughout the book, the theme of helping and trusting people is more beneficial than constantly harming others is apparent. I think it's also a bit of a positive book because the group always seems to keep pressing on despite what happens to them. No matter how hard life gets it's important to learn to trust people but it is also a valuable skill to know who to trust.
Lauren Olamina is a teenager living with her family in a walled community -- walled in to keep them safe from predators, who will steal, rape, and kill to get what they want. She longs to get away and start a new life heading north, hopeful that things will be different up there. While she's still dreaming of this different future, circumstances force her out into the world on her own. She meets people along the way and slowly builds a family and a community with them in the midst of fear, desperation, and hopelessness.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.