Octavia Butler's 1993 novel, Parable of the Sower, was listed as a New York Times bestseller for the first time in September 2020.

Parable is the story of a 15-year-old Black girl with plans to save civilization. Lauren was brought up in a small walled community in Southern California. America is in the middle of a heated election and facing deep ecological crisis, spreading disease, drug epidemics, sky-rocketing homelessness, and rampant poverty. She sees in these crises possibility for something more dire in her near future.

When it happens, she's prepared with a way forward for herself and anyone willing to join her.

Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Jeffery A. Jenkins, Donnajean Ward, and Olivia Olson on this discussion of the prescient novel.