James cover art

James

Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

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James

Written by: Percival Everett
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
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'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' – Roddy Doyle

'His [Dominic Hofman] performance is terrific: variously wry, poignant and thoughtful as he imbues Jim with the humanity and agency denied to him by Twain' – The Guardian, Audiobook of the Week

James is a profound and ferociously funny novel from one of our greatest living writers, Percival Everett.

The Sunday Times Bestseller
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Finalist for the Orwell Prize for Fiction
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Winner of The British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year

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 flees to 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.

So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey 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. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all . . .

A 'Book of the Year' in The Observer, The Times & Sunday Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Spectator, New Statesman, Independent, TLS, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, i newspaper, The Economist, The Irish Times, The New York Times, TIME and The New Yorker

'Who should read this book? Every single person in the country' – Ann Patchett

'Scorchingly funny and action-packed' – The Sunday Times, 'Books of the Year'

'This may be Everett's best book yet' – Bonnie Garmus

'Playful and viciously comic' – The Telegraph, 'Books of the Year'

'My favourite novel this year' – Salman Rushdie

 Action & Adventure African American Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction
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Critic Reviews

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)
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 (Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha)
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 (Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake)
Pure brilliance. Funny, wise, gracious; this may be Everett's best book yet (Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry)
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 (Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust)
My favourite novel this year was James by Percival Everett. By giving the runaway Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn his own voice (or voices) and his dignity – James, not Jim – he adds a dimension that’s missing from the original, and, I think, improves on it (Salman Rushdie, The Observer, 'Books of the Year')
Scorchingly funny . . . A significant and exhilarating corrective to history, told in the most compelling of voices (The Sunday Times, 'Books of the Year')
Playful and viciously comic . . . James might be the book of the year and ought to have won the Booker Prize (The Daily Telegraph, 'Books of the Year')
Percival Everett’s magisterial satire James [is] an essential rewrite of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (The Guardian, 'Books of the Year;)
James is not just an imaginative retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which gives voice and agency to the enslaved Jim) but a gripping and propulsive drama that takes readers on a familiar journey while challenging their preconceptions at every twist and turn (Financial Times, 'Books of the Year')
One of the novels of the year . . . [It] is both true to the original and turns it entirely on its head. Crackling with insight and wit (Daily Mail, 'Books of the Year')
You will never think of Mark Twain's seminal 19th-century novel in the same way again, as Everett's version is subversive, clever and exciting, while also being a rollicking good read (i newspaper, 'Books of the Year')
All stars
Most relevant
Like American Fiction, this story's gonna stay with me forever because of how satirical the tone is and the authentic the perspective is. Historical fiction adds a layer of magic (sepia) to the whole experience. The narrator is just an exceptional performer too.

The authenticity of the gaze

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Huckleberry Finn was a seminal work of its time and still remains to this day. So it takes some writing to live up to and somehow exceed that level in some cases. This book puts things in new light, and the perspective of Jim is so endearing. Also the performance here is exquisite!

Outstanding!

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James by Percival Everett is a remarkable reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that shifts the moral and intellectual center of the story to Jim. Everett gives Jim a powerful inner voice, revealing a man far more perceptive and educated than the world around him allows him to appear. Through this shift in perspective, the familiar journey down the Mississippi becomes not just an adventure but a deeply reflective exploration of dignity, identity, and survival.

What makes the novel extraordinary is Everett’s masterful use of language. Jim performs the dialect expected of him in front of white society, while his internal thoughts are sharp, philosophical, and deeply human. This contrast exposes the absurdity and cruelty of the racial assumptions embedded in society and even in the original narrative. Everett uses satire, irony, and emotional depth to turn a classic story into something both unsettling and illuminating.

James is ultimately a profound meditation on freedom, voice, and the quiet intelligence forced into hiding under oppression. By reclaiming Jim’s perspective, Everett does more than retell a famous story; he challenges readers to reconsider the narratives that shape literary history and the voices that were never fully heard. The result is a novel that feels both timely and timeless, bold in its critique yet deeply humane in its vision.

Finally, Jim!

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It shall take you a while to get the dialect but once it sets in motion and if you have read huckleberry finn then this one is a must. I haven’t read huckleberry finn but it didn’t matter

Jim’s side of the story

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Great story that in the backdrop of the Classic Huckleberry Finn Adventures with a twist based on Jim's view in the antebellum

Great audio performance and a wonderful story

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