The Victoria-based author of Washington Black has received an endorsement from one of the most famous people on the planet.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama included Esi Edugyan's Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning novel on his annual list of favourite books.

It's a first-person account of a man from Barbados, George Washington Black, who escapes a life of slavery on a sugar plantation via a hot air ballloon. It's set in several locations.

“He’s always searching for his place in the world," Edugyan told the Straight earlier this year. "And so it only seemed natural for the book to be moving through various settings.” 

In addition to winning the Giller—Edugyan's second—Washington Black was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and Governor General's Literary Award.

Another Canadian author who made Obama's book list was Michael Ondaatje for Warlight.

The former president's favourite book, not surprisingly, was Becoming by his wife Michelle.