Washington Black received positive early reviews. Trade journals Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Library Journal all gave the book starred reviews.[1][7][8] The New York Times Book Review praised the novel for "complicat[ing] the historical narrative by focusing on one unique and self-led figure.".[9] The New Yorker praises both the novel's success as historical fiction and at taking on grand themes such as love and freedom, writing "That striving—the delicate, indomitable, and often doomed power of human love—haunts "Washington Black." It burns in the black sea of history like the jellyfish in the Nova Scotia bay, no more than a collection of wisps in the darkness, but a glory all the same, however much it stings."[10]
The novel was also shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize,[11] the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,[12] and the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.[13]
The novel was selected for the 2022 edition of Canada Reads, where it was defended by Mark Tewksbury.[14]
