Kindred

Bookseller recommendation

“This was my first time reading Octavia Butler. To say I was unprepared for the character study and journey she would take me on would be a great understatement. Dana, a black woman living in 1970s California mysteriously travels back in time (repeatedly) to the antebellum South and must find a way to stay put in her own time with as little damage to her spirit as possible. This study of nature vs. nurture, first person narrative of an enslaved person, and existential crisis of time travel was fascinating - I will be reading this book again. ”

— Alecia • Wallflower Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“A beautiful story of the complex heritage of Dana, a Black woman who mysteriously gets transported from the 1970s to the early 1800 antebellum south where she is faced with saving the white son of a plantation owner from drowning. Throughout, Dana journeys back and forth from present to past, and each of her stays in the past grows longer and more dangerous. Sci-fi mixed with historical fiction, this is a well-written, must-read, emotional story. ”

— Jeanie • Ruby's Books

Bookseller recommendation

“The novel is narrated by Dana,  a Black writer  is transported from 1976 back to a slave plantation in the Antebellum South, where she meets two of her ancestors: the White son of the slave owner, and a young free Black woman, who is eventually trapped,  enslaved and made his concubine. Dana struggles to survive in this hostile world, and has to make hard ethical choices if she is to find her way home. The book has lost none of its power to entertain and inform and, at times horrify,  as it describes life on the plantation through 1970s eyes, and it well deserves its reputation as a modern classic. A must listen!”

— Phil • Timaru Booksellers