“I might have been ten, eleven years old – I cannot say for certain – when my first master died.”  So begins the odyssey of a young boy who escapes slavery in Barbados and embarks on a richly imbued adventure to discover the true meaning of freedom. Washington Black is an unforgettable character and I looked forward to every sitting with this book.

“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

“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

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