![James by Percival Everett](http://covers.libro.fm/9781035031252_1120.jpg)
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account![Phone showing make the switch message](http://cdn.libro.fm/assets/website-images/switch-2024.png)
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting African American Literature Book Club with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up today![Libro.fm app with gift bow](http://cdn.libro.fm/assets/website-images/app-gift-2024-q3.png)
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and African American Literature Book Club is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingJames
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Let's return to the time of Huckleberry Finn; the time of active slavery; the time of lazy summer days floating away down quiet rivers. Oh, I know, I know... you've heard this story before. Most people have. But this time, we're going to hear the story as told by Jim - enslaved but full of feeling and friendship and love for life. We'll get on the raft and float along, listening to tales, laughing at jokes and trying to avoid trouble, for Jim is 'running' and so is Huck. I loved this retelling. Percival Everett has such a gift for storytelling and what better story could he take on than the adventures of James and Huck. Book clubs will want to include this in their lists for sure, and so will you!”
— Linda • Auntie's Bookstore
Bookseller recommendation
“Last week I read a remarkable book, James by Percival Everett. Everett is a writer from the USA’s South who has written over 30 books but hasn’t found much of a readership here in Australia. James has arrived with little fanfare here and I think it is a book that many Readings customers will enjoy – it deserves to be towards the top of our bestseller list! James is a reimagining of the story of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of enslaved person and central character, Jim. The novel does so much: it traverses genres, provides powerful commentary on contemporary race relations in America, is a remarkable companion novel to Huckleberry Finn, all while being a page-turner. If you can’t already tell, I strongly recommend it!”
— Joe • Readings
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' – Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
Enthralling and ferociously funny, James by Percival Everett is a profound meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love. It is also a bold reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as the enslaved Jim emerges to reclaim his voice and defy the conventions that have consigned him to the margins.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan.
Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.
With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most dangerous, and life-changing, odyssey of them all . . .
'A captivating response to Mark Twain’s classic that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit' – the 2024 Booker Prize judges
'James has the potential to become a classic . . . thrilling, bold and profound' – The Sunday Times
'This is the work of an American master at the peak of his powers' – Financial Times
‘Funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting . . . Who should read this book? Every single person in the country’ – Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake
Percival Everett is the author of over thirty books, including So Much Blue, Telephone, Dr No and The Trees, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. He has received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. His novel Erasure has now been adapted into the major film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles.
Reviews
Pure brilliance. Funny, wise, gracious; this may be Everett's best book yet A sharp novel . . . You may think you know Huck Finn’s story but this version breathes new life into it with unexpected twists and turns making it a must-read. Clever, soulful, and full of righteous rage . . . James is destined to become a modern classic To call James a retelling would be an injustice. Everett sends Mark Twain’s classic through the looking glass. What emerges is no longer a children’s book, but a blood-soaked historical novel stripped of all ornament . . . Genius ‘[A] careful and thought-provoking auditing of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . broadening our understanding of an endangered classic by bringing out the tragedy behind the comic façade In a fever dream of a retelling, the new reigning king of satire, Percival Everett, has turned one of America's best loved classics, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, upside down . . . a startling homage and a new classic in its own right Heir to Mark Twain’s satirical vision, Everett turns a boyhood memoir into a neo-fugitive slave narrative thriller . . . a provocative, enlightening work of literary art [A] sly response to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . James both honors and interrogates Huck Finn, along with the nation that reveres it Once you’ve picked up Everett’s James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, you’ll know that only Everett could take on the task of allowing Mark Twain’s character Jim to show what was missing from the original story Audacious. . . Everett [gives] Jim – who, we learn, prefers to be called James – his agency, letting his intelligence and compassion shine through [Percival Everett is a] prolific genius . . . If anyone is poised to casually write a masterpiece that not only becomes instant canon but also sets a brush fire to the current ones it stands upon, it’s Everett. And that’s exactly what he’s done with James Everett's latest dazzling novel is a supplement and a rebuke, a corrective and a celebration of Mark Twain's [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] [James] abounds in satire and irony . . . Like Kafka, [Percival Everett] is capable at once of being scarily funny and chillingly serious By recasting Twain’s flawed classic as a portrait of an enslaved man – in all the fullness of his courage, humanity and humour – Everett leaves a meaningful mark on American letters The wit of the writing and the fascinating examination into the freeing power of language preserves the charm and action-packed adventure of [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn], while cleverly – and at times harrowingly – deconstructing its flaws [An] ingenious retelling of The Adverntures of Huckleberry Finn . . . Everett has outdone himself An absolutely essential read I’m demanding that you read Percival Everett’s novel James, in which Everett takes the camera from Twain’s Huck Finn and hands it to the slave, Jim. Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them A captivating response to Mark Twain’s classic that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit This is the work of an American master at the peak of his powers The audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of Twain's epochal odyssey Percival Everett is a giant of American letters, and James is a canon-shatteringly great book. Unforgiving and compassionate, beautiful and brutal, a tragedy and a farce, this brilliant novel rewrites literary history to let us hear the voices it has long suppressed James is funny and horrifying, brilliant and riveting. In telling the story of Jim instead of Huckleberry Finn, Percival Everett delivers a powerful, necessary corrective to both literature and history. I found myself cheering both the writer and his hero. Who should read this book? Every single person in the country Magnificent . . . [James] is Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful American literature’s philosopher king — and its sharpest satirist Percival Everett is an essential writer and James may be his greatest novel yet A classic novel overhauled by a modern master Fantastically entertaining . . . James’s solo adventures take on a life that doesn’t so much rival the original [The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn] as defiantly stand alone James has the potential to become a classic . . . thrilling, bold and profound Gripping, painful, funny, horrifying . . . a consummate performance to the last Both a page-turner and a profound meditation on the ramifications of slavery and self-hood . . . Luminous Expand reviewsWant the printed book?
Get the print edition from African American Literature Book Club.
Get the print edition