In 2025 California, an eighteen-year-old African American woman, suffering from a hereditary trait that causes her to feel others' pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages.

"The Nebula Award-winning author of Kindred presents a 'gripping' dystopian novel about a woman fleeing Los Angeles as America spirals into chaos (The New York Times Book Review). Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren's father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, war, and chronic shortages of water, gasoline, and more. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. When fire destroys their compound, Lauren's family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is facing apocalypse. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind. From a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship who has won multiple Nebula and Hugo Awards, this iconic novel is 'a gripping tale of survival and a poignant account of growing up sane in a disintegrating world' (The New York Times Book Review). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author's estate"--Provided by publisher.