“Boldly conceived and brilliantly written, Margaret Wrinkle’s Washreveals the horrible human predation of slavery and its nest of nightmares. With a truthfulness even beyond Faulkner, Wrinkle makes her novelistic debut in a monumental work of unflinching imagination. Impressive, first-rate? These terms are too tame to describe this magnificent work of literature.” —Sena Jeter Naslund, author ofAhab’s Wife

“This majestic, beautifully written novel will both break your heart and make it wiser; and when you have turned the last page you will want to tell everyone you know to go out and buy it.” —Charles Gaines, author of A Family Place

“This exquisite novel is a gift of healing. It exposes the dark and fearsome sin that stains our history, and confronts the guilt that lurks in our collective American soul. But in the genius of the telling we are led to the tenderness at the bone, the humanity at the core, and buoyed by joy.” —Beverly Swerling, author of City of God

“A unique and powerful story, Wash tells a chapter of our past that we would rather look away from. Margaret Wrinkle makes sure that we cannot. Her whole life has led up to this book, and she writes it in a sure and captivating voice, augmented by her remarkable pictures.” —Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row

“Margaret Wrinkle’s Wash is a marvelous window into the world of nineteenth-century American slavery—a powerful fusion of knowledge and imagination.” —Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising

“A significant and hugely troublesome book.” —Pinckney Benedict, author of Dogs of God