James
Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
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5,0 • 1 note
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- 5,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' – Roddy Doyle
'A brilliant retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved Jim' – The Observer
James is a profound and ferociously funny novel from one of our greatest living writers, Percival Everett.
The Sunday Times Bestseller
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award
Finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
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 flees to 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.
So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey 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. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all . . .
A 'Book of the Year' in The Observer, The Times & Sunday Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Spectator, New Statesman, Independent, TLS, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, i newspaper, The Economist, The Irish Times, The New York Times, TIME and The New Yorker
'Who should read this book? Every single person in the country' – Ann Patchett
'Scorchingly funny and action-packed' – The Sunday Times, 'Books of the Year'
'This may be Everett's best book yet' – Bonnie Garmus
'Playful and viciously comic' – The Telegraph, 'Books of the Year'
'My favourite novel this year' – Salman Rushdie
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As in his classic novel Erasure, Everett portrays in this ingenious retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a Black man who's mastered the art of minstrelsy to get what he needs from gullible white people. Many of the same things happen as they do in Twain's original: Jim escapes from enslavement on a Missouri farm and joins up with Huck, a white boy who's faked his own death. Huck is fleeing from his abusive father, while Jim is hoping to find a way to free his wife and daughter. The main difference is in the telling. Jim narrates, not Huck, and in so doing he reveals how he employs "slave" talk ("correct incorrect grammar") when white people can hear, to make them feel safe and superior. Everett also pares down the prose and adds humor in place of sentimentality. When Huck and Jim come upon a band of slave hunters, Huck claims Jim, who's covered by a tarp, is a white man infected with smallpox ("We keep thinkin' he gone die, then he just don't"). Clever additions to the narrative include a tense episode in which Jim is fraudulently sold by a slaver to "Dixie" composer Daniel Decatur Emmett, who has Jim perform in blackface with his singing troupe. Jim's wrenching odyssey concludes with remarkable revelations, violent showdowns, and insightful meditations on literature and philosophy. Everett has outdone himself.
