James

Hannibal, Missouri, before the Civil War. Jim is enslaved by old Miss Watson. In front of white people he plays the part they expect: broken speech, wide-eyed, superstitious. At home with his wife Sadie and daughter Lizzie, he speaks flawless English. In secret, he learned to read in Judge Thatcher's library.

When he learns he's about to be sold away from his family, Jim runs to Jackson Island, planning to come back for them. There he finds Huck Finn, the boy who faked his own death to get away from his violent father. The two head down the Mississippi on a raft.

If you know Mark Twain, you know the route: the flood, the river, the grifters calling themselves the King and the Duke. But now Jim is telling it, and that changes everything. What read as comedy in the original becomes a survival tactic, and the danger lands differently.

Percival Everett takes one of America's most-read books and hands the mic to the man who never got to speak for himself.