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Washington Black
Reader Score
87%
87% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 22 reviews on
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black--or Wash--a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master's brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.
Book Details
- Publisher: Vintage
- Publish Date: Apr 9th, 2019
- Pages: 400
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 7.90in - 5.20in - 0.90in - 0.65lb
- EAN: 9780525563242
- Categories: • African American & Black - Historical• Literary• Action & Adventure
About the Author
More books by Esi Edugyan
What people are saying
Leah Sottile is a journalist, writer, and podcast host.
I couldn’t put this book down. Just an incredible story, meticulously written, masterfully imaginative. Amazing recommendation, @sharmashields.
Anita Felicelli is a fiction writer.
excited! read Esi Edugyan's Washington Black if you haven't yet! (and for that matter, her earlier novel Half-Blood Blues) https://t.co/yVyQvHHekD
Book reviews and recommendations 📚 Sign up for our weekly newsletter by visiting our site and clicking on 'Email Newsletter' (top left)! 📖
.@TheBookerPrizes announced that novelist Esi Edugyan (WASHINGTON BLACK) will chair the judging panel for #BookerPrize2023, comprised of @andoh_adjoa, @maryjean_chan, James Shapiro & @arobertwebb. https://t.co/IhvaG163ak
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"Extraordinary. . . . Edugyan is a magical writer." --The Washington Post
"A daring work of empathy and imagination." --The New York Times Book Review
"Soaring. . . . Washington Black contains immense feeling." --Entertainment Weekly
"An inspiring story of freedom and selfdiscovery." --Time
"Enthralling." --The Boston Globe
"Sparkling . . . full of truths and startling marvels." --San Francisco Chronicle
"Powerful." --The Seattle Times
"Lush, exhilarating." --The New Yorker
"Edugyan has created a wonder of an adventure story, powered by the helium of fantasy, but also by the tender sensibility of its aspiring young hero." --NPR
"Washington Black's presence in these pages is fierce and unsettling." --Colm Toibin, The New York Times Book Review
"A gripping historical narrative exploring both the bounds of slavery and what it means to be truly free." --Vanity Fair
"Brutal, magical, urgent and exuberant." --Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Imaginative and dynamic. . . . With equal parts terror, adventure and humanity, Washington Black reads like a dream collaboration between Jules Verne and Colson Whitehead." --The Dallas Morning News
"Exuberant and spellbinding. . . . The novel is not only harrowing and poignant in its portrayal of the horrors of slavery on a Caribbean plantation but liberating, too, in its playful shattering of the usual tropes. The result is a book about freedom that's both heartbreaking and joyfully invigorating." --Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Wall Street Journal
"Masterful. . . . [A] wondrous book." --The Economist
"Edugyan's language is exquisite, and the life story of her titular slave . . . is a swashbuckling adventure." --Vulture
"Profoundly humane." --The Times (London)
"As harrowing a portrayal of slavery as Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad, but also a globe-trotting, page-turning adventure story. A historical epic with much to say about the present-day world." --The Guardian
"A wildly imaginative exploration of what it means to be free." --Financial Times
"Elegant, nuanced. . . . Edugyan illustrates the complexity of identity and explores what defines us. Is it what surrounds us, such as family? Or is it what is inside us?" --The Christian Science Monitor
"A thoughtful, boldly imagined ripsnorter that broadens inventive possibilities for the antebellum novel." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)