From Powells.com
Staff Pick
Octavia Butler makes Faulkner’s aphorism about the past not being past literal in this tale of a modern black woman, Dana, who is drawn unwittingly back through time to the Antebellum South to interact with her ancestors. Dana is pulled back and forth between past and present, each stay in the slave quarters lasting longer and becoming more dangerous, and as the tension and brutality rises she struggles to understand the connections that are drawing her back in order to escape. Originally written in the ’70s, Butler’s portrayal of the ways that the injustices of the past are woven intimately into the fabric of our present — and our inability to move forward until we gain an understanding of that — rings truer than ever. Recommended By Patrick D., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance
Review
"No other work of fantasy or science fiction writings brings the intimate environment of the antebellum South to life better than Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred." Kevin Weston, San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Butler’s books are exceptional.... She is a realist, writing the most detailed social criticism and creating some of the most fascinating female characters in the genre... real women caught in impossible situations." Dorothy Allison, Village Voice
Review
"In Kindred, Octavia Butler creates a road for the impossible and a balm for the unbearable. It is everything the literature of science fiction can be." Walter Mosley
Review
"One cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art with much to say about love, hate, slavery, and racial dilemmas, then and now." Sam Frank, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
Review
"Octavia Butler is a writer who will be with us for a long, long time, and Kindred is that rare magical artifact... the novel one returns to, again and again." Harlan Ellison
About the Author
Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was the author of many novels, including Dawn, Wild Seed, and Parable of the Sower. She was the recipient of a MacArthur Award and a Nebula Award, and she twice won the Hugo Award.