MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST - One of the Best Books of the Year: The Boston Globe ● The Washington Post ● Time ● Entertainment Weekly ● San Francisco Chronicle ● Financial Times ● Minneapolis Star Tribune ● NPR ● The Economist ● Bustle ● The Dallas Morning News ● Slate ● Kirkus Reviews "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)
