ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR -
MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST - "A gripping historical narrative exploring
both the bounds of slavery and what it means to be truly free."
--Vanity Fair
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black--or Wash--a field slave on a
Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as
the manservant of his master's brother. To his surprise, however, 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, they
must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their
travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart,
propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true
self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco,
Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love
and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.
