By Percival Everett In development as a feature film to be produced by Steven Spielberg AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER A Best Book of the Year of the Year so Far for 2024: The New York Times Book Review, TIME, Esquire, W Magazine, Bustle, LitHub A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jims point of view 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 rivers banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin), Jims 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 cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.