Kindred is a 1979

1979 in literature

The year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*V.C...

 novel by Octavia Butler. While most of Butler's work is classified as science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

, Kindred is often shelved in literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 or African-American literature and Butler herself categorized it as "a kind of grim fantasy".

The novel tells the story of Edana (Dana) Franklin, an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 woman living in 1976 Pasadena, CA who, on her twenty-sixth birthday, begins the first of six involuntary journeys back in time to Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

's Eastern Shore

Eastern Shore of Maryland

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a territorial part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies predominately on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay and consists of nine counties. The origin of term Eastern Shore was derived to distinguish a territorial part of the State of Maryland from the Western...

 in the antebellum South.