Parable of the Talents: The Extraordinary Sequel to the Bestselling Modern Classic, Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler

Headline Publishing Group, Jun 4, 2026 - Fiction - 416 pages

A stunning new contemporary edition of Octavia E. Butler's award-winning sequel to Parable of the Sower. With an introduction by Akwaeke Emezi.

'Octavia Butler was playing out our very real possibilities as humans' GLORIA STEINEM

To understand who I am, I must begin to understand who she was.

There are many things Asha needs to know. How her country could embrace a presidential reign of terror and oppression, why the people turned a blind eye to the suffering - and the truth about her mother.

Reading the journals of Lauren Olamina, the mother she barely knew, Asha struggles to reconcile herself to the legacy of a woman caught between love for her daughter and her calling to lead humanity to a better future.

WINNER OF THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL

Praise for Octavia E. Butler

'Unnervingly prescient and wise' YAA GYASI

'Butler's prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision' GUARDIAN

'One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had' JUNOT DIAZ

'Butler's evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human' NEW YORK TIMES

'An icon of the Afrofuturism world, envisioning literary realms that placed black characters front and center' VANITY FAIR

'Octavia Butler was a visionary' VIOLA DAVIS

About the author

Science-fiction writer and novelist Octavia Estelle Butler was born in Pasadena, California, on June 22, 1947. She earned as Associate of Arts degree from Pasadena City College in 1968 and later attended California State University and the University of California. Her first novel, Patternmaster, was the first in a series about a society run by a group of telepaths who are mentally linked to one another. She explored the topics of race, poverty, politics, religion, and human nature in her works. She won a Hugo Award in 1984 for her short story Speech Sounds and a Hugo Award and Nebula Award in 1985 for her novella Bloodchild. She received a MacArthur Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The award pays $295,000 over a five-year period to creative people who push the boundaries of their fields. She died in Lake Forest Park, Washington on February 24, 2006 at the age of 58.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Parable of the Talents: The Extraordinary Sequel to the Bestselling Modern Classic, Parable of the Sower
• Author: Octavia E. Butler
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group, 2026
• ISBN: 1035441381, 9781035441389
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Dystopian; Fiction / General; Fiction / Literary; Social Science / Sociology / General