Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Chosen by members as the Historical Fiction additional read



James by Percival Everett

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.

Best book I read in 2024.

I don’t think I’ll ever look at the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” the same way. This book slides in easily to fill in the spaces of Jim’s character. This book is such a wonderful adventure of the human spirit.