Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I read a wonderful book at the cabin, Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan.  Set in Barbados, Virginia, Morocco and London in the seventeen hundreds, it follows a slave, George Washington Black and his childhood.  He is remarkable when we meet him, at age eleven, and grows more amazing as his adventures turn him into youth who examines his attachments to his owner's brother and his enslaved champion and what they mean and who he is because of their interest.  His sufferings are great, but his tenacity and intellect lift him from his fate to another, most surprising one.  I had tears at the end of the book, and then realized how much I cared for this fictional boy.  Every scene is vivid and breathtaking.  I was engulfed by a history I barely knew before reading the novel.  Though I was at my cabin in the woods, I was transported back in time and into the lives of people so very different that I "traveled".  What better praise than that?