Fledgling: Octavia E. Butler's extraordinary final novel

About the Book

'The Octavia Butler novel for our times' THE ATLANTIC

'My book of the year . . . completely devours the genre which gave rise to it' JUNOT DIAZ

The final ground-breaking novel from renowned, bestselling author Octavia E. Butler.

A young girl wakes up in the woods, gravely injured and alone, with no memory of what happened or who she is.

As Shori heals, she realises that she isn't like the people around her, which leads to a shocking discovery. She is a fifty-three-year-old vampire, and in terrible danger.

To save herself, Shori must learn anew everything about the power and desires that she holds, the life that was stolen from her - and those who want her dead.

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

'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

'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' JUNOT DIAZ

'Octavia Butler was a visionary' VIOLA DAVIS

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

About the Author :
OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (1947-2006) was the renowned author of numerous ground-breaking novels, including Kindred, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. Recipient of the Locus, Hugo and Nebula awards, and a PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work, in 1995 she became the first science-fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship 'genius grant'. A pioneer of her genre, Octavia's dystopian novels explore myriad themes of Black injustice, women's rights, global warming and political and economic disparity, and her work is taught in over two hundred colleges and universities nationwide.

In 2020, Octavia E. Butler became a New York Times bestselling author.

Review :
One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had Butler's prose, always pared back to the bone, delineates the painful paradoxes of metamorphosis with compelling precision A dark, compelling and still horribly resonant time travel story [Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential... If you've ever tweeted "All Lives Matter", someone needs to shove Kindred into your hand, and quickly Kindred is that rare magical artifact . . . the novel one returns to, again and again One cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art [A] must-read novel Everyone should read at least one novel by the grand dame of science fiction, and Kindred is a perfect (and harrowing and disturbing and brilliant) place to start The immediate effect of reading Octavia Butler's Kindred is to make every other time travel book in the world look as if it's wimping out... This is a brilliant book, utterly absorbing, very well written, and deeply distressing. It's very hard to read, not because it's not good but because it's so good A searing, caustic examination of bizarre and alien practices on the third planet from the sun One of the most original, thought-provoking works examining race and identity Impossible to turn away from once you've devoured the first few pages If you haven't read Butler, you don't yet understand how rich the possibilities of science fiction can be Butler's books are exceptional Few writers in our field are so good at blending page-turners with philosophical questions so seamlessly