The Christian Science Monitor

'Washington Black' uses the story of a talented young slave to explore identity

“Freedom is a word with different meanings to different people,” writes Esi Edugyan in Washington Black.

The third novel by the award-winning Canadian writer of Ghanaian descent, the book tells the tale of a young enslaved boy who escapes from the sugar plantation that is the only home he knows. With a bounty on his head, his master’s brother, a scientist, helps him slip away using his “cloud cutter,” the man’s newly invented flying

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