08 Apr Book Review: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Washington Black is one of those novels that starts in one place and ends up somewhere completely unexpected, both geographically and emotionally. What begins as a story about a young boy enslaved on a Barbados plantation expands into a sweeping tale of science, freedom, identity, and the cost of survival. It’s part historical fiction, part adventure story, and part quiet character study, written with lyrical prose and a sharp eye for human contradictions.

What’s it about?

The book opens in the early 1830s on a sugar plantation in Barbados called Faith, where an eleven-year-old boy named George Washington Black—Wash for short—is enslaved. His world is brutal and limited, dominated by the whims of the plantation’s white owners and overseers. He’s under the thumb of the new master, Erasmus Wilde, a cruel and capricious man who rules through fear and violence.

But Wash’s life changes drastically when he’s pulled from the fields to serve as a personal assistant to Erasmus’s younger brother, Christopher Wilde—known as Titch. Titch is a scientist, a naturalist, and a man consumed by curiosity. He’s eccentric, prickly, and often absorbed in his experiments, including a half-built flying machine he calls the Cloud-cutter. Unlike Erasmus, Titch treats Wash with a degree of kindness and respect, and he quickly discovers that Wash is bright, observant, and artistically gifted.

Their relationship begins as one of convenience—Titch needs help with his inventions, and Wash needs protection. But it gradually evolves into something more complicated, a bond that straddles the line between mentorship, guardianship, and perhaps even something like family. Wash becomes integral to Titch’s work, both as a helper and as a skilled illustrator, capturing specimens and inventions with astonishing precision.

The novel takes a dramatic turn when a man is found dead on the plantation and Wash is wrongly implicated. Fearing for his life, Titch rescues Wash and the two flee the island in the Cloud-cutter. What follows is an extraordinary journey across the globe—Barbados to Virginia, the Arctic, London, and Morocco—as Wash searches not just for safety, but for meaning and belonging.

Along the way, Wash encounters both cruelty and kindness. In Virginia, he hides in fear; in the Arctic, he faces the raw power of nature and the limits of Titch’s idealism. In London, he begins to carve out a life for himself, working with a marine biologist and slowly discovering the power of his own voice and intellect. And yet, even as he grows more independent, the shadow of his past—especially his unresolved feelings about Titch and the nature of their bond—continues to haunt him.

Titch’s sudden disappearance midway through the novel leaves Wash emotionally adrift. The man who helped him escape slavery also abandoned him, and Wash spends much of the rest of the story grappling with that contradiction. Was Titch a savior or just another man who used him when it suited him? The book never gives easy answers.

Washington Black is a story about movement—across countries, across social strata, across identity. But it’s also about stillness. The moments when Wash is forced to sit with his memories, his questions, and his pain. It asks what freedom really means, especially for someone who was born into bondage and then thrust into a world that doesn’t quite know what to do with him.

What This Chick Thinks

This book was such a layered, unexpected experience. I went in thinking it was going to be a harrowing historical tale—and in some ways, it is—but it’s also filled with moments of wonder, like the flying machine, the Arctic scenes, and the delicate science of marine observation. It blends the real and the imaginative in a way that reminded me a little of literary magic realism, but always anchored in deep emotional truth.

Wash is a phenomenal protagonist. His voice is clear, complex, and beautifully developed. He starts as a frightened boy who is used to being invisible, and by the end of the novel, he’s someone who demands to be seen—not just by others, but by himself. His journey toward self-definition is what gives the book its power. He’s not simply reacting to the world anymore—he’s shaping his place within it.

Titch, meanwhile, is one of the most fascinating and frustrating characters I’ve read in a while. He’s progressive in theory, but flawed in practice. His desire to help Wash feels genuine, but his failure to fully reckon with his own privilege and blind spots becomes more glaring as the story unfolds. The way their relationship unravels is heartbreaking but necessary.

What I loved most was the way the novel refuses to settle into one genre or message. It’s about slavery, but it’s also about science. It’s about escape, but it’s also about what comes after. It’s about the scars of trauma, but also the quiet acts of rebuilding. And through all of it, Edugyan’s writing is so precise and graceful—it carries the story without ever feeling heavy-handed.

Final Thoughts

Washington Black is a novel of ideas, but it’s also deeply emotional. It’s about the cost of freedom and the ambiguity of human relationships, especially the ones shaped by power imbalances. It’s beautifully written, filled with adventure and heartache, and it gives space to questions that don’t have easy answers. Wash is a character I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

Rating: 9/10

Try it if you like

• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead – Another novel that blends history with a touch of the fantastical, exploring what freedom means in a world designed to deny it.
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones – A richly detailed, nuanced look at slavery and identity, with an expansive cast and a powerful sense of place.
• The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami – A historical reimagining centered on a Moroccan slave who becomes an early explorer of the Americas, offering a sharp critique of power and narrative.