Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Second Life of Samuel Tyne | 2004 | Esi Edugyan | Buy |
| 2 | Half-Blood Blues | 2011 | Esi Edugyan | Buy |
| 3 | Washington Black | 2018 | Esi Edugyan | Buy |
Esi Edugyan’s three standalone novels share a concern with displacement, race, and belonging, but each tells its own story. The Second Life of Samuel Tyne (2004), her debut, follows a Ghanaian immigrant whose family moves from Calgary to a decaying Alberta town that was once a haven for formerly enslaved Black Americans. It was shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and named a New York Public Library Book to Remember.
Half-Blood Blues (2011) shifts to 1940 Paris and Berlin, where a group of Black jazz musicians record what may be their last session before the Nazis close in. The story centers on Sidney Griffiths and his friend Hieronymus Falk, a young mixed-race trumpet prodigy who is arrested and disappears. Fifty years later, Sid must face his role in what happened. Washington Black (2018) follows an enslaved boy named Wash on a Barbados sugar plantation who escapes aboard a homemade cloud-cutter with his master’s brother, a naturalist and inventor. Both Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black won the Scotiabank Giller Prize.