About the book
Set between Los Angeles and a plantation in early 19th-century Maryland, Octavia E. Butler's novel follows Dana, a young Black writer. On her twenty-sixth birthday, she is suddenly pulled out of her own time and onto the plantation, where a red-haired boy named Rufus, the white son of the owner, is drowning and she is there to save him. It is only the first of many summons back to that place. Butler models the story on slave narratives and tells it in Dana's voice. Butler herself called it a kind of grim fantasy, and it crosses from science fiction into African-American literature.
Denise Morris Kipnis, founder of ChangeFlow Consulting, said it moved her to tears, called it a study in empathy and in how people are bound together, and said that after reading it she refocused her practice from diversity to inclusion. BlastPoint chief executive Alison Alvarez called it an amazing work of science fiction, suggested to her by a friend who teaches high school English.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Alison Alvarez (Co-Founder & CEO/Blastpoint.io)
I have one friend who unfailingly recommends books that I love. She is a high school English teacher. She recommended Kindred by Octavia Butler, which is just an amazing work of science fiction. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but just trust me that it’s a good read.
Denise Morris Kipnis (Founder & Principal/ChangeFlow Consulting)
This was a tough book for me, brought me to tears. Imagine having to save your slave master, because he’s your ancestor? A wonderful study in empathy, the nature of humanity, and how we’re all intertwined. After reading this book I refocused my practice from diversity to inclusion.
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Alison Alvarez, Denise Morris Kipnis