Choose from over 40,000+ eBooks, AudioBooks, Courses & Podcasts now - for Free!
- Fiction
Over 10,000 Fiction eBooks
Get 30 Days Free Trial
- Top 100 reads of All-time
Get set to read and listen
Access to over 40,000 options
- Crime/Mystery
Best Crime Audiobooks and eBooks
Get Free Trial
- Children
Audiobooks For Your Children
Free 30 Days Trial
- Read Reviews
Read Our Customer Experiences.
Get To Know Us Better.
- Customer Reviews
See What Our Customers Are Saying
To Get To Know Us Better.
- Fiction
Browse new releases, best sellers or classics & find your next favourite book. Huge selection of books in all genres. Free UK delivery on eligible orders
- Kindle eBooks
Choose from hundreds of eBooks
available on your Kindle.
- New Releases
Check Out Our Newest Releases.
Get The Latest Gear From GP!
- Literary Fiction
Read Reviews From
Previous-Verified Guests Of This...
- Customer Reviews
See What Our Customers Have To Say
About Our Products.
- Kindle eBooks
9.0/10 (118092 reviews)
pdf-editor.pdffiller.com has been visited by 1M+ users in the past month
*Trusted by over 45 million users *100% Free Trial *24/7 online customer support. Online PDF Editor on PDFfiller for Free, no installation required!
Search results
This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper ANSI/NISO specifications for permanence as revised in 1992. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
- 747KB
- 288
- Contents
- Prologue
- I put him down on his back, tilted his head back, and began
- “I don’t know.”
- “I’m not sure it matters what we think.” “What do you mean?”
- The Fire
- The boy had his back to me and hadn’t noticed me yet. He held a
- “I remember seeing you. It was like I stopped drowning for a
- I looked over at the boy who would be Hagar’s father. There was
- “How? When?”
- I was surprised he wanted to see me again. I hadn’t had much con-
- “Put it in your fireplace,” I told him. “Watch to see that it all
- Kevin lay half on top of me, holding me, smearing himself with
- “Patrollers made sure the slaves were where they were supposed
- “It scared you.”
- Tlie Fall
- I took his hand and held it, glad of its familiarity. And yet I
- laid a hand on Kevin’s arm just in time to stop him from saying
- “I already don’t understand,” he said. “I don’t know how I can
- “We don’t know. But it is.”
- The cook came over and looked at me, at my pants. She pinched
- Tom Weylin was up early one morning and he caught me stum-
- “Yes, sir.”
- “How many whippings?”
- “Rufus!” She sounded hurt rather than angry. And in spite of the
- The Fight
- “The only close relative I’ve got left is my sister,” he said. “She’s
- I winced and wished I could move Rufus out of his reach. “Alice,”
- “It’s Dana, Rufe.”
- He tried to sit up, managed to raise himself about six inches be-
- I stared at him. Heaven help Alice and Isaac. Heaven help me. If
- I found Rufus with no particular difficulty and Nigel lifted him as
- “Somewhere North. I don’t know. Rufus has some letters from
- “Dana, was it white men?”
- I nodded. “I hear.”
- It was late when they got home—almost dark. Rufus ran into the
- “Just soap, which I intend to use. Find it for me, will you? Then
- I turned to face him. “I heard you.” “Well?”
- I didn’t move.
- I said nothing.
- “I can’t.”
- I looked down at my jeans. “I’m so used to dressing like this, I
- “Well, it looks as though you have three choices. You can go to
- “You know why.”
- Well, at least I knew that Easton was a few miles to the north, and
- He didn’t say anything more for a long while-not until we were nearing the house. Then, “You awake, Dana?”
- He jumped, started to get up, then sat back down heavily and
- “It was him then.”
- She nodded as she would not have to Weylin or Rufus. They
- The Storm
- Kevin stroked his beard. “I grew this to come back.” “Why?”
- “Can’t I help?” I asked finally. “Help with what?”
- “I didn’t do it for you.”
- “You damned black bitch!” He shook his cane at me like an ex-
- “Did they hurt before when you had ague?”
- “Damn you to hell, you let him die!” He tried to lunge at me, sue-
- On the day after Weylin was buried, Rufus decided to punish me
- Fowler came back as I was gathering the cut stalks. “What the
- The words echoed strangely in my head. Kevin had said something
- “These are stronger than the others,” I said. And also, I wanted to
- That was the beginning of my first full day with her. When she was
- I let the coflBe reach the house far ahead of me. By the time I got
- “It’s too small.”
- I peered at her through the semidarkness. Rufus kept her well sup-
- The Rope
- “Hagar has been bom.”
- I shook my head. “You know, it’s not only what will happen to
- just looked at him.
- “And my mother,” continued Rufus calmly, “says if she closes her
- voice. A man’s voice.
- Something harder and stronger than Rufus’s hand clamped down on
- Epilogue
- Kindred Octavia E. Butler Introduction by Robert Crossley
- Black Women Writers Series Series Editor: Deborah E. McDowell
INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT CROSSLEY PROLOGUE THE RIVER THE FIRE THE FALL THE FIGHT THE STORM THE ROPE
I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm. And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone. When the police released Kevin, he came to the hospital and stayed with me so that I would know I hadn’t lost him too. But before he could come to me, I had to convince the police that he did n...
14 KINDRED mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. I saw his chest move as I breathed into him. Then, suddenly, the woman began beating me. “You killed my baby!” she screamed. “You killed him!” I turned and managed to catch her pounding fists. “Stop it!” I shouted, putting all the authority I could into my voice. “He’s alive!” Was he? I couldn’t tell. Please...
THE RIVER 15 “Dana, you . . He came over to me, touched me tentatively as though he wasn’t sure I was real. Then he grabbed me by the shoul¬ ders and held me tightly. “What happened?” I reached up to loosen his grip, but he wouldn’t let go. He dropped to his knees beside me. “Tell me!” he demanded. “I would if I knew what to tell you. Stop hurting ...
“Well... it happened once. What if it happens again?” “No. No, I don’t think. . ” “You don’t know!” I was starting to shake again. “Whatever it was, I’ve had enough of it! It almost killed me!” “Take it easy,” he said. “Whatever happens, it’s not going to do you any good to panic yourself again.” I moved uncomfortably, looked around. “I feel like i...
l tried. showered, washed away the mud and the brackish water, put on clean clothes, combed my hair. . . “That’s a lot better,” said Kevin when he saw me. But it wasn’t. Rufus and his parents had still not quite settled back and become the “dream” Kevin wanted them to be. They stayed with me, shad¬ owy and threatening. They made their own limbo and...
20 KINDRED stick of wood in one hand and the end of the stick was charred and smoking. Its fire had apparently been transferred to the draperies at the window. Now the boy stood watching as the flames ate their way up the heavy cloth. For a moment, I watched too. Then I woke up, pushed the boy aside, caught the unbumed upper part of the draperies a...
THE FIRE 23 while and saw you, and then started to drawn again. After that Mama was there, and Daddy.” “And Daddy’s gun,” I said bitterly. “Your father almost shot me.” “He thought you were a man too—and that you were trying to hurt Mama and me. Mama says she was telling him not to shoot you, and then you were gone.” “Yes.” I had probably vanished ...
THE FIRE 29 nothing in him that reminded me of any of my relatives. Looking at him confused me. But he had to be the one. There had to be some kind of reason for the link he and I seemed to have. Not that I really thought a blood relationship could explain the way I had twice been drawn to him. It wouldn’t. But then, neither would anything else. Wh...
“I don’t know how. You weren’t here. But when the fire started and I got so scared, I heard a voice, a man. He said, ‘Dana?’ Then he said, ‘Is it happening again?’ And someone else—you—whispered, ‘I think so.’ I heard you!” I sighed wearily, longing for my own bed and an end to questions that had no answers. How had Rufus heard Kevin and me across ...
32 KINDRED tact with children since I’d been one myself. Somehow, I found my¬ self liking this one, though. His environment had left its unlikable marks on him, but in the ante bellum South, I could have found my¬ self at the mercy of someone much worse—could have been de¬ scended from someone much worse. “Where can I find Alice’s mother?” I asked....
THE FIRE 33 burns before you go to sleep. But, Rufe . . . don’t burn anything else.” He glanced downward, embarrassed. “I won’t.” “Good. There must be safer ways of annoying your father. Now which way is it to Alice’s house?” 3 He pointed the way, then left me alone in the silent chilly night. I stood beside the house for a moment feeling frightene...
44 KINDRED my blood and his own. I could see where I had scratched his face—so near the eye. “Kevin, I’m sorry!” “Are you all right now?” “Yes. I thought. . . I thought you were the patroller.” “The what?” “The . . . I’ll tell you later. God, I hurt, and I’m so tired. But it doesn’t matter. I’m home.” “You were gone two or three minutes this time. ...
46 KINDRED to be at night, and they punished those who weren’t. They chased down runaways—for a fee. And sometimes they just raised hell, had a little fun terrorizing people who weren’t allowed to fight back.” Kevin leaned on one elbow and looked down at me. “What are you talking about? Where were you?” “In Maryland. Somewhere on the Eastern Shore ...
50 KINDRED “Terrified me. For a second, I thought it was ... I don’t know, something dangerous.” “And your fear made you dizzy, and you thought you were com¬ ing home. Does fear usually make you dizzy?” “No.” “I don’t think it did this time either—at least not in any normal way. I think you were right. You did almost come home. Your fear almost sen...
think Kevin was as lonely and out of place as I was when I met him, though he was handling it better. But then, he was about to es¬ cape. was working out of a casual labor agency—we regulars called it a slave market. Actually, it was just the opposite of slavery. The peo¬ ple who ran it couldn’t have cared less whether or not you showed up to do th...
THE FALL 59 wished he were back at home. In this place, he was probably better protection for me than free papers would have been, but I didn’t want him here. I didn’t want this place to touch him except through me. But it was too late for that. I looked around for Rufus, knowing that he must be nearby. He was. And the moment I saw him, I knew I wa...
THE FALL 61 whatever he would have said. The look on his face was enough to tell me he should keep quiet. “The boy learned to talk that way from his mother,” I said softly. “And from his father, and probably from the slaves themselves.” “Learned to talk what way?” asked Rufus. “About niggers,” I said. “I don’t like that word, remember? Try calling ...
62 KINDRED see you when you’re not here, or how you get here, or anything. My leg hurts so much I can’t even think about it.” “Let’s wait then. When you feel better. . .” “When I feel better, maybe you’ll be gone. Dana, tell me!” “All right, I’ll try. Have you ever heard of a place called Cali¬ fornia?” “Yeah. Mama’s cousin went there on a ship.” L...
THE FALL 63 He thought for a while looking from one to the other of us. “I don’t believe you,” he said. Kevin made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “I don’t blame you.” I shrugged. “All right, Rufe. I wanted you to know the truth, but I can’t blame you for not being able to accept it either.” “Nineteen seventy-six,” said the boy slowly. He shook ...
74 KINDRED up a little of the material, feeling it. “What cloth is this?” she asked. Polyester double knit, I thought. But I shrugged. “I don’t know.” She shook her head and went back to her pot. “You know,” I said to her back, “I think I agree with you about Miss Margaret.” She said nothing. The warmth I’d felt when I came into the room was turnin...
THE FALL 97 bling, still half-asleep, out of Kevin’s room. I froze, then made my¬ self relax. “Morning, Mr. Weylin.” He almost smiled—came as near to smiling as I’d ever seen. And he winked. That was all. I knew then that if Margaret got me kicked out, it wouldn’t be for doing a thing as normal as sleeping with my master. And somehow, that disturbe...
“And stay away from the books!” 98 KINDRED “Yes, sir.” Hours later in the cookhouse, Nigel asked me to teach him to read. The request surprised me, then I was ashamed of my surprise. It seemed such a natural request. Years before, Nigel had been chosen to be Rufus’s companion. If Rufus had been a better student, Nigel might already know how to read...
“One that I’ve seen. One too goddamn many!” “One is too many, yes, but still, this place isn’t what I would have imagined. No overseer. No more work than the people can man¬ age . . .” “. . . no decent housing,” I cut in. “Dirt floors to sleep on, food so inadequate they’d all be sick if they didn’t keep gardens in what’s supposed to be their leisu...
104 KINDRED situation, this sounded like real disrespect to me. I stopped reading and waited for the explosion. It came from Rufus. “Go away, Mama!” he shouted. “Just leave me alone!” “Be still,” she whispered. “Baby, you’ll make yourself sick.” Rufus turned his head and looked at her. The expression on his face startled me. For once, the boy looke...
1 We never really moved in together, Kevin and I. I had a sardine- can sized apartment on Crenshaw Boulevard and he had a bigger one on Olympic not too far away. We both had books shelved and stacked and boxed and crowding out the furniture. Together, we would never have fitted into either of our apartments. Kevin did sug¬ gest once that I get rid ...
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
Cover illustration: Laurence Schwinger Cover design: Joanna Steinkeller
- 9MB
- 298
Dec 31, 2014 · Kindred (Bluestreak) by. Octavia E. Butler. Publication date. February 2004. Publisher. Tandem Library. Collection. internetarchivebooks; printdisabled.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Parable of the Sower and MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Nebula, and Hugo award winner. The visionary time-travel classic whose Black female hero is pulled through time to face the horrors of American slavery and explores the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.
Feb 1, 2004 · Kindred. Octavia Butler. Beacon Press, Feb 1, 2004 - Fiction - 288 pages. Selected by The Atlantic as one of THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS.
Dec 31, 2014 · Kindred. by. Octavia E. Butler. Topics. slavery, antebellum, time travel, bi-centennial, inter-racial marriage, Black history. Item Size. 1.1G. Dana is a young college graduate who also happens to be African American and newly married to Kevin, who happens to be white.
People also ask
Is 'kindred' a good book?
Is kindred a first-person novel?
What type of paper is kindred printed on?
What makes Kindred different from the rest of Butler's fiction?
Is kindred a true story?
When did Octavia Butler write Kindred?
Sep 30, 2024 · by Octavia E. Butler. Dana, a Black woman, finds herself repeatedly transported to the antebellum South, where she must make sure that Rufus, the plantation owner's son, survives to father Dana's ancestor.
