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James

by Percival Everett

A familiar river journey seen from Jim’s side

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A familiar river journey seen from Jim’s side

Percival Everett reimagines Adventures of Huckleberry Finn through Jim’s perspective, shifting attention to the agency and intelligence of a man whose choices are constrained by enslavement. After learning he may be sold and separated from his wife and daughter, Jim runs away to make a plan. Huck, meanwhile, has faked his death to escape his violent father. Their paths lead onto the Mississippi by raft, toward the uncertain promise of the Free States. The novel revisits a well-known American literary journey while foregrounding Jim’s perspective on family, freedom, and the dangers of the world around him.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in historical fiction and reworkings of classic American literature.
  • Readers seeking fiction centered on enslavement, family separation, and the pursuit of freedom.

Themes

Agency under enslavementFamily separationFreedom and escapeReimagining a literary classic

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST - ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE - KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER - A LOS ANGELES TIMES BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE LAST 30 YEARS

In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg - A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times Book Review, LA Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Economist, TIME, and more.

"Genius"--The Atlantic - "A masterpiece that will help redefine one of the classics of American literature, while also being a major achievement on its own."--Chicago Tribune - "A provocative, enlightening literary work of art."--The Boston Globe - "Everett's most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful."--The New York Times


When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. 

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
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