A slave’s flight from brutality
WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan (Serpent’s Tail £14.99)
IN 1830, two brothers, Erasmus and Christopher ‘Titch’ Wilde, take over a Barbados sugar plantation, a transition watched with sullen resignation by the brutalised slaves.
Among them is 11-year-old Washington Black, whose artistic gifts are spotted by the eccentric Titch. Scientist, explorer and abolitionist, Titch is building an aerial machine and he requires Wash’s help. A violent death means the pair must escape the island, and Wash finds himself pitchforked into another life.
On this year’s Man Booker longlist, at the core of this novel, with its searing, supple prose and superb characters, is a visceral depiction of the abomination of slavery.
Yet, as importantly, it explores an unlikely friendship, the limits to understanding another’s suffering, the violence lurking in humans and the glories of adventure in a world full of wonders.
NOW WE SHALL BE ENTIRELY FREE by Andrew Miller (Sceptre £18.99)
INJURED in the retreat to Corunna, Captain John Lacroix returns home in 1809. Healed in body, but not in mind, he heads for the Hebrides to find peace.
However, he is unaware that he is being hunted by a Spanish officer, Lieutenant Medina, and an English corporal, Cally, tasked with bringing him back to Spain to answer for an alleged crime. What was this atrocity committed in a remote Spanish village and who was the perpetrator?
His memory shot, Lacroix is an easy target for others to manipulate for political and strategic purposes.
In his luminous prose, Costa Prize winner Andrew Miller conjures three very different men, but their experiences have all been traumatising.
Manhunt and pilgrimage, the tale unfolds into a gripping and, ultimately, surprising exploration of the inner battleground.
THE VERDUN AFFAIR by Nick Dybek (Corsair £16.99)
THE battle of Verdun is a by-word for slaughter and destruction. In 1921, Tom is helping the local priests to field inquiries from bereaved women searching for their men.
He meets Sarah, a widow, who is haunted by the notion that her husband is alive. In this bleak and confused aftermath, they begin an affair.
Tom meets her again in Italy, where she has arrived to question an amnesiac soldier patient who might be her husband.
Here they encounter an Austrian journalist, Paul, who is also interested in the patient. Years later in California, Paul and Tom reconnect — only to realise that, at the time, they had missed the clues to the answers they sought.
Some fine writing and interesting detail are marred by the choppy construction.