Kindred
25th Edition
Published on 1. February 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-8070-8369-7 (ISBN)
Description
One of the 100 best novels ever published in English (The Guardian), most consequential novels of the past 100 years (The Atlantic), most essential books published in the U.S. since 1776 (Publishers Weekly)
Experience the novel that redefined American literature by the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower, MacArthur “Genius," and Nebula and Hugo award winner
"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm."
Dana's 26th birthday celebration ends when she's ripped from 1976 California and thrust onto a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. Her mission: keep alive the white boy who will grow up to assault her ancestor—because without him, she'll never be born.
Every trip back grows more dangerous. Dana feels the lash, wears the chains, endures the daily terror that defined millions of lives. She can't just read about slavery's horrors—she lives them, bleeds from them, nearly breaks under them.
Butler doesn't let you observe from a safe distance. You're trapped in Dana's skin as she navigates impossible choices: submit to survive, or resist and risk everything. You'll feel her desperation as she fights to preserve her humanity while the plantation's brutality threatens to consume her.
This isn't historical fiction—it's time travel that cuts straight to the bone of American racism. Butler pioneered the neo-slavery narrative that inspired Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Water Dancer. But Kindred remains unmatched in its raw power to make slavery's legacy feel immediate, personal, and inescapable.
You'll finish this book changed. Dana's story will lodge itself in your chest and refuse to leave. You'll understand, in ways textbooks never taught you, how the past lives in our present—and why that matters more than ever.
“Where stories about American slavery are often gratuitous, reducing its horror to explicit violence and brutality, Kindred is controlled and precise” (New York Times).
“Reading Octavia Butler taught me to dream big, and I think it’s absolutely necessary that everybody have that freedom and that willingness to dream.”
—N. K. Jemisin
This book has been published with two different covers. Customers will be shipped the cover available.
Experience the novel that redefined American literature by the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower, MacArthur “Genius," and Nebula and Hugo award winner
"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm."
Dana's 26th birthday celebration ends when she's ripped from 1976 California and thrust onto a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. Her mission: keep alive the white boy who will grow up to assault her ancestor—because without him, she'll never be born.
Every trip back grows more dangerous. Dana feels the lash, wears the chains, endures the daily terror that defined millions of lives. She can't just read about slavery's horrors—she lives them, bleeds from them, nearly breaks under them.
Butler doesn't let you observe from a safe distance. You're trapped in Dana's skin as she navigates impossible choices: submit to survive, or resist and risk everything. You'll feel her desperation as she fights to preserve her humanity while the plantation's brutality threatens to consume her.
This isn't historical fiction—it's time travel that cuts straight to the bone of American racism. Butler pioneered the neo-slavery narrative that inspired Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Water Dancer. But Kindred remains unmatched in its raw power to make slavery's legacy feel immediate, personal, and inescapable.
You'll finish this book changed. Dana's story will lodge itself in your chest and refuse to leave. You'll understand, in ways textbooks never taught you, how the past lives in our present—and why that matters more than ever.
“Where stories about American slavery are often gratuitous, reducing its horror to explicit violence and brutality, Kindred is controlled and precise” (New York Times).
“Reading Octavia Butler taught me to dream big, and I think it’s absolutely necessary that everybody have that freedom and that willingness to dream.”
—N. K. Jemisin
This book has been published with two different covers. Customers will be shipped the cover available.
More details
Edition
25th Anniversary edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Boston, MA
United States
Target group
US School Grade: Ninth Grade and over, Interest Age: From 14 years
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
348 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8070-8369-7 (9780807083697)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
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.
Content
Prologue
The River
The Fire
The Fall
The Fight
The Storm
The Rope
Epilogue
Reader’s Guide
Critical Essay
Discussion Questions
The River
The Fire
The Fall
The Fight
The Storm
The Rope
Epilogue
Reader’s Guide
Critical Essay
Discussion Questions