All the way back in 2003, Octavia Butler’s Kindred became one of the first books chosen for the countywide Rochester Reads program. Thousands of Monroe County residents read the novel and many got the chance to hear Butler speak at several presentations throughout the county.
Whether you participated back then, or are picking it up for the first, you might want to know that our Classic Book Discussion Group will read and discuss Kindred in August 2025.
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BOOK DESCRIPTION
The first science fiction written by a Black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of Black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity.
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.
Author Octavia E. Butler skillfully juxtaposes the serious issues of slavery, human rights, and racial prejudice with an exciting science fiction, romance, and historical adventure.
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Copies of Kindred can be picked up from the Book Discussion Shelf on our first floor, and it’s also available digitally as an ebook (through Libby/Overdrive) or an audiobook (through Libby/Overdrive and Hoopla).
An in-person discussion of Kindred will be held at the library on Thursday, August 28, at 3:00 PM. No registration is required to attend.
Published on August 1, 2025.
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