'Octavia Butler was playing out our very real possibilities as humans. I think she can help each of us to do the same'' GLORIA STEINEM ''Her evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human'' NEW YORK TIMES From the groundbreaking, award-winning author of Parable of the Sower: one young man with extraordinary gifts must reconcile his own heritage before he can change the fate of humanity. Lilith''s son Akin looks like an ordinary child. His family live together on Earth, but not in complete peace. The Oankali saved humanity years before, compelled by the desire to create an extraordinary new race of children. But there are those who resist the Oankali and the salvation they offer. The first of his kind, Akin is more powerful than any other being. He understands the desire to fight for the independence of humanity. He also fears that, if left alone, humanity will destroy itself again. And when young Akin is stolen from Lilith and their hybrid family, he soon faces an impossible choice. But first he must reconcile with his own heritage in a world already torn in two. PRAISE FOR OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR ''In the ongoing contest over which dystopian classic is most applicable to our time... for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler''s novel may be unmatched'' NEW YORKER ''Butler''s prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision'' GUARDIAN ''Octavia Butler was a visionary'' VIOLA DAVIS ''One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had'' JUNOT DIAZ ''An icon of the Afrofuturism world, envisioning literary realms that placed black characters front and center'' VANITY FAIR ''Butler writes with such a familiarity that the alien is welcome and intriguing. She really artfully exposes our human impulse to self-destruct'' LUPITA NYONG''O