A review by trilbynorton
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

5.0

This is definitely one of those "As relevant now..." books. Through the eyes of Dana, a contemporary black woman (the book is set in 1976 and first published in 1979) as she travels back in time to the antebellum American south, we see a first-hand account of slavery, slaves, and slaveowners. The thing about the book which struck me the most is how it connects the past and the present. Dana is called back to the past by one of her ancestors, a white slaveowner named Rufus, and through their complex relationship we see how the past creates the present; how we need to accept what happened without losing sight of how terrible it was and how we can't let it happen again.