James by Percival Everett

James (Pulitzer Prize Winner): A Novel Hardcover – March 19, 2024

by Percival Everett (Author)

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (77,811) 4.5 on Goodreads 366,822 ratings

#1 Best Seller in Black & African American Historical Fiction

Pulitzer PrizeWinner, 2025--National Book AwardWinner, 2024

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • N

 I liked the book but didn't love it.  It was frightening to get a glimpse into a life of servitude. The idea that there was a hidden society that was still oppressed was equally dismaying.  The humor of the minstrel group was a welcome surprise.  The inhumanity to your fellow man that was illustrated caused me considerable distress.  If history didn't prove slavery existed, it would be hard to believe that such ignorance and brutality existed.  It is an eye-opening book, and if I hadn't taught American History at one point in my life, I would tend to think the setting fictional, sadly, it was not.   

ATIONAL 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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