The first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship, Octavia Butler broke a lot of ground. Her 1993 breakout novel Parable of the Sower, set between 2024-2027, predicted the United States we live in today.
Butler imagined a world in which climate change has made food and water scarce and expensive. Paying work is rare; company towns, sex work, and modern slavery are on the rise; and the basic institutions of American life have eroded or collapsed.
It’s a rare magic trick to publish a novel about a prophet that itself turns out to be prophetic, and it wasn’t until Butler’s predictions started coming true—nearly 30 years after the book’s original publication—that Parable first hit the bestseller lists.
English (US)