Wash

Synopsis

Fiction to look out for in 2026 —The Observer

He is a boy growing up in rural Pennsylvania under the eye of a brutal, brilliant father. He is a young man at college, enduring the choices that have been made for him and finding brightness and beauty all the same. He is a soldier in a dreadful war who – despite that awful conflict – finds the extraordinary woman who was the love of his life, and her tale inextricably twines with his. He is an engineer who builds one of the great wonders of the modern world.

His name is Washington Roebling. His life holds the possible and the impossible, what could be grasped and what could only be longed for. History holds one truth. Here is another.

Forged in a brutal age, duty-bound to execute his domineering father’s vision of the life he must live, he joins forces with his brilliant wife Emily to overcome myriad obstacles to fulfilling his obligation, chief among them his own yearning to shed the burden of achieving a dream that was never his own.

This is a book of growth, yearning, about the price of achievement, about the road not taken. Beads on the necklace of a life are strung together to create a composite portrait not only of Washington but of those who loved him: Emily of course, but Max too – a young man whose spirit will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Here duty and desire, love and obligation, intersect and contradict each other. With subtle narrative and powerful, vivid prose it offers an invitation to enter a complex world, so that readers may see their own histories, their own choices, their own possibilities, mirrored in this compelling text.

Wash is a richly imagined and intimate book about a singular life – built from as many intricately linked elements as the iconic Brooklyn Bridge that is its hero's lasting legacy.

Praise for This Book

‘Erica Wagner’s Wash is a universal story of depth, wisdom and heart. She shows how one person's struggle can stand for all of our struggles, and how what we build, and who we love, make the world we all live in.’ —Elif Shafak

‘Immersive, moving, intensely romantic, Wash tells the hypnotic story of a man and a moment in history with intimate, engrossing precision.’ —Tahmima Anam

‘Not only does Erica Wagner’s brilliant new novel offer an extraordinary portrait of its eponymous hero, it lets us deep into the haunting dimensionality of those closest to him too. As moving as it is consummately researched, Wash brings a world full of marvelous visions, terrible conflict, heroic labors, unbearable loss and complex love to indelible life.’ —Laird Hunt

‘Few writers conduct the spirits of the past with as much care and skill as can be found in Wash. A vivid exploration of one of history’s most fascinating characters.’ —Paddy Crewe, author of ‘My Name Is Yip’ and ‘True Love’

‘Wash is an astonishing resurrection of the life of the Brooklyn Bridge’s engineering marvel Washington Roebling. In Erica Wagner’s breathtaking and stereoscopic narrative, we witness Roebling’s admirable marriage with his brilliant wife Emily, the pain of filial duty, and how friendships transformed an American genius so powerfully. WASH is a gorgeous and moving novel of resilience, ingenuity, and love.’ —Min Jin Lee — author of ‘Free Food for Millionaires’ and ‘Pachinko’, a National Book Award Finalist

Praise for Previous Work

‘On Seizure: The language is brazen and burnished, hard, precise, poetic and mutable, incubating contradictions, giving off heat and chill and simultaneous passion, giving off dazzle, a cry from the heart that is ruled by intelligence and shaped from first to last by a need to be spoken, a need to be heard – like the stories it hoards.’ —Tom Adair, The Scotsman

‘On Chief Engineer: Washington’s dry wit and even tone give life and personality to Wagner’s already enjoyable prose. The book is also peppered with cheerfully informative footnotes. Perhaps best of all are the quotations from Washington’s letters (including crossed-out lines), which offer unfiltered insight into the mind of a long-dead luminary of American innovation.’ —The New York Times

‘On Gravity: Wagner’s great gift proves to be her ability to transform bleak situations through the careful geometry of her prose, which resonates with the redeeming mysteries of life.’ —Frank Egerton, Literary Review

‘On Gravity: Beautifully imagined and controlled.’ —Kate Hubbard, The Spectator