James by Percival Everett

James by Percival Everett is a re-imagining of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of the enslaved man, Jim. Jim escapes after learning he'll be sold, joining Huck Finn on a Mississippi River journey to freedom while reclaiming his own identity as a resourceful, intelligent man, not a simple caricature. The novel details Jim's harrowing escape, his cunning linguistic skills (using dialect around whites, standard English when alone), and his determination to free his family, subverting the original narrative by centering Jim's agency, intelligence, and humanity.