"When Lilith Iyapo wakes from a deep sleep, she finds herself aboard a vast spaceship, haunted by confused memories of a nuclear war that ravaged the world. She discovers that she is being held by the Oankali, a seemingly benevolent alien race that intervened in the human race's extinction, rescuing the survivors from their ruined planet and placing them in a coma-like sleep for centuries. Now the restored Earth is ready for inhabitants, and the Oankali want Lilith to help awaken the rest of the survivors and rebuild human-kind. But the Oankali have needs of their own... and salvation comes at a price. Soon Lilith must choose how much of humanity she is willing to sacrifice for the future of her race." -- The human race, now infertile, fights to maintain its identity when the alien species, Oankali, offers to trade genetic material and bioengineering at the price of metamorphosing a new kind of being. Back cover.

"Originally published in hardback in 1987. First trade paperback edition 2021." -- Title page verson. Includes reading group guide, ©2021.