Washington Black: A Novel

Written by Esi Edugyan

Narrated by Dion Graham

From the author of the award-winning international best seller Half-Blood Blues comes a dazzling new novel, about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world.

George Washington Black, or "Wash," an eleven-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master's brother as his manservant. To his surprise, 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, Christopher and Wash must abandon everything. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic. What brings Christopher and Wash together will tear them apart, propelling Wash even further across the globe in search of his true self. From the blistering cane fields of the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, from the earliest aquariums of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black tells a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, of a world destroyed and made whole again, and asks the question, What is true freedom?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio
• Release date: Sep 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780525642947

Esi Edugyan

Esi Edugyan has a Masters in Writing from Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, and Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing (2006). Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally. It was nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, was a More Book Lust selection, and was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of 2004's Books to Remember. Her novel Half-Blood Blues won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. Edugyan has held fellowships in the US, Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Spain and Belgium. She has taught creative writing at both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Victoria. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Reviews for Washington Black

[lisa Dorr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic characters. Beautiful language. Well worth the read.

[Bruce Gellerman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Superbly written adventure through time and space. This is a book to be read, discussed & re-read.

[Joseph Mazza · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such an amazing book. One of the best audiobooks i have ever heard as far as production and voice acting, and one of the best stories I have ever been sucked into. You are immediately thrown into the life of slave in the early 1800s on a sugar plantation. The brutality of that world as told through the eyes of a child who had never known any other life or that any other type of life could even exist. The characters so throughly developed, even the minor ones we only know for a few pages or chapters. It’s a thrilling story that walks such a fine line between obvious fiction and a possible biography. Highly recommend.