Kindred
1979 • 292 pages

Ratings309

Average rating4.3

15

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 to begin.

Become a Librarian

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Deceptively simple prose, a wide and complicated spanning of human emotions, and time travel that feels almost natural. I can't believe this book was written in 1979.

July 19, 2017
December 19, 2008

I'm not very much into time travel tales, but this one is terrifying, riveting and irresistible. Worth a read for the chills and the chance to reflect on racial issues.

August 23, 2018

Top Prompts

Featured Prompt

46 books

#10 in What is the most unique or thought-provoking time travel book you've ever read?

Time travel books are a great way to explore the possibilities and consequences of changing the past. They can also be a lot of fun, as you follow the adventures of characters who travel through time.

#1
This Is How You Lose the Time War
#2
Recursion
#3
11/22/63
Hyperion
Outlander
Sea of Tranquility
Doomsday Book
The Time Traveler's Wife
Kindred
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
The Time Machine

Featured Prompt

2,856 books

#220 in What are your favorite books of all time?

When you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...

#1
The Lord of the Rings
#2
Dune
#3
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Way of Kings
1984
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Pride and Prejudice
The Martian
The Hobbit
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Project Hail Mary
The Hunger Games