James
**A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view** 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 nuanced 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.
Where James keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Books in conversation with James
A few of the closest reads from our full list.
What you might want to know about James
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Percival Everett retells the story of Huck Finn from Jim's point of view, restoring the inner life that Twain left out. The novel keeps the river, the boys, and the runaway slave plot, and makes Jim the protagonist.
Yes. James won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It also won the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction. Percival Everett also wrote Erasure, the basis for the 2023 film American Fiction.
Yes. James retells The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man Huck travels with. Percival Everett restores Jim's interior life, language, and agency in ways the original could not.
James was written by Percival Everett, published in 2024 by Mantle.
James is 320 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, James takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
James is a standalone novel by Percival Everett, not part of a series.
James is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
