Author: James Everett
Published: 2024
Pages: 303
Prize: Shortlist, Man Booker 2024
This is a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but can be read on its own.
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Jim, an enslaved man, hides on Jackson Island after learning he’ll be sold, aiming to escape his impending separation from his family. Huck Finn, who has faked his death to escape his abusive father, sets off on a perilous journey down the Mississippi River. Their adventures, filled with humor and sharp insights, highlight Jim’s agency and intelligence, marking a significant contribution to modern American literature.
Complexity
CEFR: B2-C1
Plot Complexity: moderate
Language Complexity: moderate
Ideas Complexity: moderate
Blurb
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 The 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 river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with electrifying humor and lacerating observations, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
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