Kindred is a neo-slave/science fiction novel by American writer and Hugo Award-winning author Octavia E. Butler. It was published in June 1979 and spawned a 2022 television adaptation.
Synopsis[]
Butler’s most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre–Civil War South. As she time-travels between worlds, one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation, she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana’s own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him.
During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.
Author Octavia E. Butler skillfully juxtaposes the serious issues of slavery, human rights, and racial prejudice with an exciting science-fiction, romance, and historical adventure.
Characters[]
- Edana "Dana" Franklin
- Kevin Franklin
- Tom Weylin
- Margaret Weylin
- Rufus Weylin
- Hagar Weylin
- Alice Greenwood
- Sarah
- Luke
- Nigel
- Carrie
- Liza
- Tess
- Jake Edwards