James A Novel

Author Percival Everett won for his novel James, and the biography award went to David Greenberg for his book about the late Congressman John Lewis.

Percival Everett won the Fiction Award for his book James, which is a retelling of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, except from Jim's point of view.

And I think in our favorite things episode last holiday season, both Kate and I had Barbara King solvers, demon copperhead, which is a send up of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. And if you like that twist on a classic novel, you will really like James by Percival Everett, which is reworking of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, who is the enslaved person who travels with Huck Finn.

James by Percival Everett reimagines Huckleberry Finn told from the point of view of Jim, Huck's enslaved companion on that immortal raft ride.

James by Percival Everett reimagines Huckleberry Finn told from the point of view of Jim, Huck's enslaved companion on that immortal raft ride. Alternating mordant humor with horror, Everett makes readers understand that for Jim, here called James, the Mississippi may offer a temporary haven, but given the odds of him making it to freedom, the river will likely be a vast highway to a scary nowhere.

It's shaping up to be quite a year for Percival Everett; his 2001 novel Erasure was adapted ... and his latest novel James has just come out.

That's the premise of Percival Everett's magnificent new novel called James.

It's a reimagining of Mark Twain's 1885 classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, placing the supporting character James in the spotlight.

and Percival Everett's brilliantly subversive James.