Parable of the Sower
1993
- fiction
- twenty-first century
- african americans
- science fiction
- audiobooks
- general
- fiction, science fiction, general
- california, fiction
- african americans, fiction
- american literature
The story
In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future. Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
What it’s like
Spare, plainspoken first-person prose that moves like a road narrative: short dated journal entries, dry observations of heat, dust and scarcity, and the constant pressure of a world where water is currency and walls are the only shelter. The sensory palette is sun-bleached and dusty, with the bruised colours of fires on the horizon, cracked highways, and the gritty textures of makeshift camps and scavenged food. Its vibe is tense, watchful and quietly hopeful, a slow-burning unease broken by moments of communal warmth. Pacing is steady and deliberate, building through episodes of travel and encounter rather than sudden set pieces, and the emotional register is intimate: a young woman whose painful sensitivity to other people's suffering shapes how she sees her companions, slowly moving from fear toward an idea of shared purpose. Violence is present and sometimes brutal, including killings, rape, arson and cruelty, delivered in sharp, sudden flashes rather than lingering gore, and it carries real emotional weight. Best suited to readers who want a thoughtful, unsentimental dystopia with a strong sense of place, and who can sit with hard material for the sake of a hopeful, searching story.
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