James

A Novel

By: Percival Everett

Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman

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.

I will be forever changed by reading this book.

"James" is the story of the slave Jim in Huckleberry Finn as told by Jim. Percival Everett is a gifted storyteller and an excellent writer. Everett describes the life and emotions of a slave with clarity, poignancy and controlled rage as James desperately searches for his family and freedom. It is with wonder that after enduring such terrible treatment that any slave could hold to the hope that something better could be available, that freedom was a possibility. They had to have hope to survive and to attempt to escape bondage. I will be forever changed by this story of what was a gentle, self-educated man forced to hide and kill, never losing hope that he would find his wife and daughter and take them to freedom. This is an important book to be published at this time for it is long past time for Americans to come to grips with the horror of our history of slavery. We cannot regain our national soul until we do. We need to see slavery in all its savagery and acknowledge it so we can end racism for all time. The story of James may help us do this.

One of the best books I’ve ever read

I am not good at writing an eloquent review that will want to make you want to read a book. All I can say is this is everything I want in a book-a compelling story, a great narrator, and it changed me. One of the best books written in the past 50 years, imho.

Excellent and heartfelt

I loved this book and could hardly put it down. To me it spoke of the power love and endurance. I read Huckleberry Finn as a child but remember little about it, but I don’t think it was necessary for understanding and appreciating this story.

A masterpiece!

Telling and embellishing the mark twain masterpiece of American literature from the point of view of the slave Jim was a brave effort that succeeded beyond anything imaginable. Now I will have to re-read the original.

Painful yet gratifying.

Outstanding writing. It took me on an emotional ride at times hard to read but ultimately gratifying.