Edugyan makes it a kind of adventure and mystery novel, with escapes, travels to foreign lands, strange flying contraptions, and much more. But at a deeper level, it's a novel about escaping: from the oppressive system of slavery and from a world of ignorance. It is a tale about getting opportunities and taking them, but also a reflection of the lost potential of slavery (how much richter would life be in all people in deprived situations would have managed to fulfill their full potential). Young Washington is an expert draughtsman, and his skills get recognised and provide a life-line beyond the prejudices he encounters in the outside world.
Instead of a lifelong confinement to work as a slave within the boundaries of the plantation, Washington gets an education, gets the chance to flee, and to discover foreign lands. At the same time, he feels indebted to his benefactor whose tracks he looses. He journeys from the tropics to icy Canada, to the civilisation of London and then to far-away Morocco. It is also the story of two men, who become unlikely friends. The young one learning the bizarre ways of men, the older one an equally bizarre specimen, but in that respect also a good counterpoing for the rest of society.
Edugyan writes well, with compassion for our characters, with a vivid imagination, and with a nice and controlled tempo that pushes the reader on to read further and further. It's a story about emancipation, about going beyond the boundaries of what is expected.
Her fantasy is as rich as her writing is economic and functional.
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