A beautiful new edition of a modern classic by celebrated, award-winning author, Octavia E. Butler. With an introduction by Levar Burton and an afterword by N.K. Jemisin.

‘If there is one thing scarier than a dystopian novel about the future, it’s one written in the past that has already begun to come true’ GLORIA STEINEM

We are coming apart. We’re a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time.

America is a place of chaos, where violence rules and only the rich and powerful are safe. Lauren Olamina, a young woman with the extraordinary power to feel the pain of others as her own, records everything she sees of this broken world in her journal.

Then, one terrible night, everything alters beyond recognition, and Lauren must make her voice heard for the sake of those she loves.

Soon, her vision becomes reality and her dreams of a better way to live gain the power to change humanity forever.

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