The Parables Boxed Set - by Octavia E Butler (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The bestselling PARABLE OF THE SOWER and PARABLE OF THE TALENTS trade paperback books, complete with French flaps and deckled edges, together in a premium boxed set. A perfect gift for readers.

Parable of the Sower: 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, she 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.

Parable of the Talents: In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction and ruin of everything she knew. Her peaceful community provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president. Under his rule, Lauren's colony--a minority religious faction led by a young Black woman--becomes a target for the president's reign of terror and oppression. Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew. As she searches for answers, she struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future. Includes a foreword by Akwaeke Emezi.

Review Quotes

"One of the finest voices in fiction--period . . . . A master storyteller with a voice that cradles and captivates, Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignoreance, and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature."--Washington Post

"Butler does not appear to have intended the Parable novels to be a guidebook--and yet they are. That's true for all of the most powerful science fiction novels: they offer not only accurate visions of the future but also suggestions for coping wih the resulting changes . . . Brilliant."--N.K. Jemisin

"Butler's narrative skills are impressive."--New York Times Book Review

"In the ongoing content over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time, Octavia Butler's Parable Books may be unmatched."--New Yorker

About the Author

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER was a renowned writer who received a MacArthur "Genius" Grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. She was the author of several award-winning novels including Parable of the Sower, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future. Sales of her books have increased enormously since her death as the issues she addressed in her Afrofuturistic, feminist novels and short fiction have only become more relevant. She passed away on February 24, 2006.