A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and ferociously funny—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 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.
 
 
Literary Awards
 
Booker Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2024), National Book Award for Fiction (2024), Audie Award Nominee for Best Fiction Narrator and Literary Fiction & Classics (2025), Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Audiobook and for Fiction (2024), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2024), Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction (2025), Kirkus Prize for Fiction (2024), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction and for Audiobook (2024), Southern Book Prize Nominee for Fiction (2025), Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize Nominee for Fiction (2024), Aspen Words Literary Prize Nominee for Longlist (2025), Dublin Literary Award Nominee (2025), She Reads Best of Award for Literary Fiction and Nominee for Book of the Year and Audiobook (2024), Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Award (2024), Libby Award Nominee for Best Adult Fiction and Best Historical Fiction (2025)