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Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
From the author of The Trees, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.

‘Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them’ – Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha

Enthralling and ferociously funny, James by Percival Everett is a profound meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love. It is also a bold reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as the enslaved Jim emerges to reclaim his voice and defy the conventions that have consigned him to the margins.

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 decides to hide on 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. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft 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.

With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most dangerous, and life-changing, odyssey of them all . . .

‘A towering achievement’ – the 2024 Booker Prize judges

‘Who should read this book? Every single person in the country’ – Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake

‘Funny, wise, gracious; this may be Everett’s best book yet’ – Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

‘Thrilling, bold and profound’ – The Sunday Times

‘This is the work of an American master at the peak of his powers’ – Financial Times

‘Magnificent . . . Everett’s most thrilling novel, but also his most soulful ‘ – The New York Times

Publisher Review

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 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 an audacious, beguiling American master, whose wild trajectory has reached astonishing highs in the past decade. Now comes James, which enlists and devours not only Mark Twain’s novel but aspects of Melville, Ellison, and even Kafka to make an irrevocable invention into the canon. Everett is simply playing this game at a higher level, and it is the most serious game imaginable — Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn The unsung Jonathan Swift of modern American fiction * The Times * It’s about time this extraordinary American writer got some credit this side of the Pond — Sunday Times on The Trees A powerful wake-up call, as well as an act of literary restitution — Guardian on The Trees Satire in the great tradition of Swift by way of South Park — Daily Telegraph on The Trees There’s nobody else quite like him, with his mash of ideas, chaos, satire and frivolity — Financial Times on Dr No Clever, funny and mercilessly satirical. — The Times on Dr No