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James (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

by Percival Everett Publisher: VINTAGE

Award Winner Critically Recognized

A familiar river journey, recentered on Jim

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Regular price $31.25 USD Sale price $18.75 USD
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Paperback New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Award recognition

    Pulitzer Prize winner

    The book is identified as a Pulitzer Prize winner.

  • Bestseller

    #1 New York Times bestseller

    The metadata identifies James as a #1 New York Times bestseller.

  • Editorial selection

    A Best Book of the Year: TIME

    Named a Best Book of the Year.

AlbakiReads Editorial

A familiar river journey, recentered on Jim

Percival Everett’s reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn places the enslaved Jim at the center of the journey. After overhearing that he is to be sold and separated from his family, Jim escapes to make a plan. Huck, fleeing his violent father, has also set out on his own. Their paths converge on a raft trip down the Mississippi toward the Free States. The change in viewpoint brings Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion into focus, while the novel revisits the promise of freedom through the circumstances that shape his journey.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in historical fiction centered on slavery and the pursuit of freedom.
  • Readers familiar with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn who want a retelling from Jim’s point of view.
  • Readers interested in novels that reconsider American literary classics.

Themes

Slavery and freedomFamily separationAgency and self-determinationReimagining 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 - In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg

KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER - NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST - SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE - 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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Customer reviews

M
AlbakiReads
Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

T
AlbakiReads
Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

O
AlbakiReads
Olivia

Smooth.