James - Percival Everett - 2024
A Novel

By: Percival Everett
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 03-19-24
Categories: Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor, Satire
Language: English
Publisher: Random House Audio
Format: mp3 64/48 stereo

Publisher's Summary:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view • From the “literary icon” (Oprah Daily) and Pulitzer Prize Finalist whose novel Erasure is the basis for Cord Jefferson’s critically acclaimed film American Fiction

"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

"If you liked Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, read James, by Percival Everett" —The Washington Post

When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

©2024 Percival Everett (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Huck Finn’ Is a Masterpiece. This Retelling Just Might Be, Too."—The New York Times

"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, author of Trust

“This is a brilliant, accessible, and very necessary companion to Huckleberry Finn.”—Dave Eggers, author of The Eyes and the Impossible

Editorial Review

A radical reimagining

In the wake of Percival Everett's renewed attention for Erasure, the 2001 novel that inspired the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction, the author is once again sweeping the literary world off its feet, taking us on a journey down the Ohio River that just as swiftly subverts racist stereotypes in storytelling today. James, a reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from Jim’s perspective, can’t help but make a stir in the publishing world, as it places a radical spin on what is not only one of the most challenged classics in public libraries but one of the most frequently debated American satires of all time. Narrator Dominic Hoffman, who recently wowed with his melting pot of accents in James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, expands Jim’s narrative with dignity and grace while preserving the character’s signature dialect. —Haley H., Audible Editor

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