Washington Black - Hardcover

Esi Edugyan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846689597 ISBN 13: 9781846689598

Publisher: Serpent's Tail, 2018

Synopsis

ESCAPE IS ONLY THE BEGINNING...

A stunning new novel of slavery and freedom by the author of the Man Booker and Orange Prize shortlisted Half Blood Blues

When two English brothers take the helm of a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington Black - an eleven year-old field slave - finds himself selected as personal servant to one of these men. The eccentric Christopher 'Titch' Wilde is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor and abolitionist, whose single-minded pursuit of the perfect aerial machine mystifies all around him.

Titch's idealistic plans are soon shattered and Washington finds himself in mortal danger. They escape the island together, but then then Titch disappears and Washington must make his way alone, following the promise of freedom further than he ever dreamed possible.

From the blistering cane fields of Barbados to the icy wastes of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-drowned streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black teems with all the strangeness and mystery of life. Inspired by a true story, Washington Black is the extraordinary tale of a world destroyed and made whole again.

About this title

About the Author

Esi Edugyan's Half Blood Blues won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Governor-General's Literary Award, the Rogers Writers' Trust Prize, and the Orange Prize. Washington Black will be published in August 2018. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Review

Washington Black is nothing short of a masterpiece. Esi Edugyan has a rare talent for turning over little known stones of history and giving her reader a new lens on the world, a new way of understanding subject matter we arrogantly think we know everything about. This book is an epic adventure and a heartfelt tale about love and morality and their many contradictions. I loved it. -- Attica Locke Praise for Half Blood Blues: A thrilling story about truth and betrayal ... a brilliant, fast-moving novel -- Kate Saunders * The Times * Edugyan really can write ... redemptive * Guardian * Assured, vivid and persuasive... Impressively evocative of period and place * Time Out * Edugyan never stumbles with her storytelling, not over one sentence * Independent * Lyrical and genuinely exciting; a captivating book that races along with verve and panache. * Daily Express * Ingenious... * Daily Telegraph * You'll relish how Edugyan's consistent, arresting musicality, at both the sentence and structural levels, develops its own accurate truth about experience... literary genius * Dallas News * Mesmerising... A remarkable novel * Morning Star * what stands out most is its cadenced narration and slangy dialogue, as conversations, both spoken and unspoken, snap, sizzle, and slide off the page. * Publisher's Weekly * shines with knowledge, emotional insight, and historical revisionism, yet it never becomes overburdened by its research. * Canberra Times * a triumph... punchy and atmospheric. * Sunday Times * Praise for Half-Blood Blues 'Simply stunning, one of the freshest pieces of fiction I've read. A story I'd never heard before, told in a way I'd never seen before. I felt the whole time I was reading it like I was being let in on something, the story of a legend deconstructed. It's a world of characters so realized that I found myself at one point looking up Hieronymus Falk on Wikipedia, disbelieving he was the product of one woman's imagination -- Attica Locke Sublime... * Booklist * Conversations, both spoken and unspoken, snap, sizzle, and slide off the page * Publishers' Weekly * Gripping... * Irish Times * Nimble storytelling . * International Herald Tribune *

Edition details

• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846689597
• ISBN 13: 9781846689598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 419