Kindred

The conceit is simple enough. It's 1976 and Dana Franklin is moving into her new apartment when she is suddenly transported to the antebellum South of 1819 where she saves a young boy named Rufus. A boy that is a pivotal branch in Dana's own family tree that must be kept alive to ensure Dana continues to exist.

Dana wrestles with her modern day understanding against the backdrop of casual violence. She is far and away more educated than any of the slave holding landowners and yet physically cowed by the merciless whipping she receives. In her words you feel the abject fear that prevents her from making the attempt at escape again. You understand, in a way that wasn't available to you before, the compromises that she is willing to make, and those she accepts in others. It brings the casual cruelty of that time into sharp focus and Rufus is as compelling a villain as you will ever find on the page.

It's as harrowing a read as it is informative, and each side informs the other. An incredible accomplishment that is just as powerful now as it must have been nearly half a century ago.