N. K. Jemison wrote that it took her three reads to truly appreciate the brilliance of this novel. That Parable of the Sower is a powerful book is immediately evident. Many have called it prescient, almost eerily so.

Written in 1993 and set in a fictional version of California in 2020's, it imagines a world ravaged by disease, poverty, and violence, where the climate has changed, the police are corrupt and ineffective, and those who still bother to vote have elected a President promising to return things to normal while defunding science and deregulating corporations that are now free to prey on the poor and desperate. Reading this book in 2021 is an unsettling experience. It's not just prescient; it's too close for comfort.

But even amidst all the bleakness and brutality, there is a theme of hope that runs through the narrative. However bad things get, however much horror there is to witness, however overwhelmingly the odds seem stacked against them, this is still a story about the resilience of the survivors and the power of empathy to plant the seeds of change where they are most needed.