Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, named one of the best books of 2018 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time magazine, among others, Washington Black transformed Canadian author Esi Edugyan into an international literary star.

It’s the story—inspired by real events—of a young slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, Washington “Wash” Black. His master turns out to be a Renaissance man of sorts, a naturalist, explorer, and inventor who ultimately engineers Wash’s escape and begets a global adventure.

Man Booker judges lauded Washington Black as “a chase story that doubles as an intellectual quest, a history lesson in the form of a fairy tale.”

Co-presented by Rainy Day Books.