Washington Black
By Esi Edugyan
This year we welcome Esi Edugyan back to the Man Booker Prize: Her novel Half Blood Blues was a longlist finalist in 2011. Her latest, Washington Black, quickly earned favorable reviews in news outlets across North America and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. The novel is named for its main character, an 11-year-old field slave whose master is a naturalist and explorer Christopher “Titch” Wilde. When an unexpected crisis occurs, the two flee in a hot-air balloon and travel the world, journeying from everywhere from the Arctic to Morocco. In a starred review, Kirkus calls it “a thoughtful, boldly imagined ripsnorter that broadens inventive possibilities for the antebellum novel.”
Originally Published
