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'*
James by Percival Everett [is] such a brilliant retelling of The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the
enslaved Jim, resisting and rebelling against underestimation and
oppression. A wise and profound book – and funny too
*Kit de Waal, The Observer, 'Books of the Year'*
James by Percival Everett is more than a retelling of a classic; it
is a reclamation, somehow a homage and a rebuke – a retelling that
centres a man we only previously accessed through the lens of a
child. It is a wry, wise, funny and touching book that I would gift
to strangers on the street if I could
*Attica Locke, The Observer, 'Books of the Year'*
Funny, moving, beautifully written, Percival Everett’s retelling of
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a brave thing to do – but
Everett is a fitting match for Mark Twain
*Margaret MacMillan, New Statesman, 'Books of the Year'*
Original, funny, quirky and serious without being solemn
*The Spectator, 'Books of the Year'*
Choosing the best book of the year is usually a test . . . But this
year Percival Everett’s James . . . is so dazzling that it deserves
wide appreciation and acknowledgement . . . [It] will surely become
a classic to be read alongside Twain
*Elaine Showalter, TLS, 'Books of the Year'*
Gripping, painful, funny, horrifying . . . a consummate performance
to the last
*The Observer*
This is the work of an American master at the peak of his
powers
*Financial Times*
Both a page-turner and a profound meditation on the ramifications
of slavery and self-hood . . . Luminous
*TLS*
A classic novel overhauled by a modern master
*The Daily Telegraph*
Percival Everett is an essential writer and James may be his
greatest novel yet
*i*
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
*Daily Mirror*
Majestic . . . [James] is Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also
his most soulful
*The New York Times*
American literature’s philosopher king — and its sharpest
satirist
*The New Yorker*
[An] ingenious retelling of The Adverntures of Huckleberry Finn . .
. Everett has outdone himself
*Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)*
The audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of
Twain's epochal odyssey
*Kirkus (Starred Review)*
An absolutely essential read
*Booklist (Starred Review)*
Clever, soulful, and full of righteous rage . . . James is destined
to become a modern classic
*Esquire.com*
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
*The Atlantic*
‘[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
*The Wall Street Journal*
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
*NPR.org*
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
*The Boston Globe*
[A] sly response to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . . . James
both honors and interrogates Huck Finn, along with the nation that
reveres it
*The Washington Post*
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
*The Los Angeles Times*
Audacious. . . Everett [gives] Jim – who, we learn, prefers to be
called James – his agency, letting his intelligence and compassion
shine through
*Time*
[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
*Elle*
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]
*Scotland on Sunday*
[James] abounds in satire and irony . . . Like Kafka, [Percival
Everett] is capable at once of being scarily funny and chillingly
serious
*The Herald*
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 Irish Times*
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
*Irish Mail on Sunday*
James is a masterful reimagining of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn . . . [Percival Everett] has written a classic
*Nicola Sturgeon, New Statesman, 'Books of the Year'*
James, Percival Everett’s reimagining of The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, was the pick of the Booker list – a nerveless
triumph of tone
*Andrew Marr, New Statesman, 'Books of the Year'*
Impudent and satirical, Everett demands courageous open-mindedness
from his readers
*Terri Apter, TLS, 'Books of the Year'*
Devastating . . . [James's] fearsome transformation is marked not
only in the title, but also in [the novel's] final words
*Leo Lensing, TLS, 'Books of the Year'*
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