James cover art

James

Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

James

By: Percival Everett
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

About this listen

'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' – Roddy Doyle

'His [Dominic Hofman] performance is terrific: variously wry, poignant and thoughtful as he imbues Jim with the humanity and agency denied to him by Twain' – The Guardian, Audiobook of the Week

James is a profound and ferociously funny novel from one of our greatest living writers, Percival Everett.

The Sunday Times Bestseller
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Finalist for the Orwell Prize for Fiction
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Winner of The British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year

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

 Action & Adventure African American Best of 2024 Black Creators Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Funny Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking Witty Mississippi

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer cover art
The Trees cover art
Bel Canto cover art
The Secret Collector cover art
Vanity Fair cover art

Critic reviews

A captivating response to Mark Twain’s classic that is both a bold exploration of a dark chapter in history and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit (The 2024 Booker Prize Judges)
I’m demanding that you read Percival Everett’s novel James, in which Everett takes the camera from Twain’s Huck Finn and hands it to the slave, Jim. Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them (Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha)
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 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)
My favourite novel this year was James by Percival Everett. By giving the runaway Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn his own voice (or voices) and his dignity – James, not Jim – he adds a dimension that’s missing from the original, and, I think, improves on it (Salman Rushdie, The Observer, 'Books of the Year')
Scorchingly funny . . . A significant and exhilarating corrective to history, told in the most compelling of voices (The Sunday Times, 'Books of the Year')
Playful and viciously comic . . . James might be the book of the year and ought to have won the Booker Prize (The Daily Telegraph, 'Books of the Year')
Percival Everett’s magisterial satire James [is] an essential rewrite of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (The Guardian, 'Books of the Year;)
James is not just an imaginative retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which gives voice and agency to the enslaved Jim) but a gripping and propulsive drama that takes readers on a familiar journey while challenging their preconceptions at every twist and turn (Financial Times, 'Books of the Year')
One of the novels of the year . . . [It] is both true to the original and turns it entirely on its head. Crackling with insight and wit (Daily Mail, 'Books of the Year')
You will never think of Mark Twain's seminal 19th-century novel in the same way again, as Everett's version is subversive, clever and exciting, while also being a rollicking good read (i newspaper, 'Books of the Year')
All stars
Most relevant
Everett’s writing is lyrical, searing and witty. The perspective of a black man’s lived experience is critical learning for those of us who are unaware of the privilege we take for granted. How this book still manages to be funny and uplifting with such injustice and tragedy is beyond my tiny little brain. Every positive superlative deserved. Congratulations to anyone wise enough to read this book.

Beautiful literature with important learning

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Early on in James, the protagonist explains to his family the rules for surviving slavery, but in this incredible retelling, James (known as Jim the Slave) has to break every rule in the book.
Drawing on Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but following Jim throughout and beyond, things start out badly for Jim but only get worse as he and,for much of the time, Huck, make their way down the Mississippi escaping from all kinds of troubles and finding even more.
The stakes are high, and the adventure is filled with peril but the bright and scathing sense of humour keeps spirits bright initially, until the relentless impact of slavery takes its toll on the characters and on the reader.

Truly powerful storytelling placing James front and centre of a biting and anguish filled tale about identity, autonomy and hope against odds.

Throughout the darkness, the writer peppers and weaves in touching moments of kindness and love. James may indeed be angry and afraid and despairing, but more than anything he is compassionate and empathetic, torn between risk and safety.

This novel leaves its mark and rightly so.

Breaking Jim Out

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
We all know the story of Huckleberry but don’t be put off. This is a fantastic retelling from the eyes of James the slave. The story feels familiar but the story told by zJames is a completely different view. Huck is only a small part of this tale and I highly recommend it to you. Enjoy.

A fantastic retelling but from another’s viewpoint

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Highly recommend this book. Will be adding it to our book club reading list when it’s my turn to pick a book for discussion.
Loved James, a fantastic character and the story, although heart breaking, was beautifully written.

A great book for a book club discussion

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I raced through this. The story was captivating from the very beginning. The intertextuality was really interesting and the characters all felt well rounded. The narration was fantastic.

World class

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews