This satirical, Booker-shortlisted tale flips the script on Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the children’s novel published in 1884 and set in Mississippi that went on to become a toxic cornerstone of the American canon. Where Twain had teenage Huck as his narrator, in James, Percival Everett reimagines the story from the perspective of his friend and fellow runaway Jim, an enslaved Black man who opens the book with the line: “Those little bastards were hiding out there in the tall grass.”

The little bastards in question are Huck and his pal Tom Sawyer, who want to play a trick on Jim while he sleeps. He is alert to the boys’ games but plays along because, as he has learned from experience: “It always pays to give white folks what they want.” When our protagonist learns he is to be sold downriver and separated from his family, he hides on nearby Jackson Island while he comes up with a plan. There he is joined by Huck, who is trying to escape his abusive father.

The actor Dominic Hoffman is the book’s narrator. His performance is terrific: variously wry, poignant and thoughtful as he imbues Jim with the humanity and agency denied to him by Twain. Where the original Jim was illiterate and talked in dubious dialect, Percival’s James is erudite and widely read, though he is careful not to let the white people know, speaking to them in “correct incorrect grammar” in order that they retain their sense of superiority. For James, “Jim” is a performance created to minimise danger.

Further listening

Dare I Say It
Naomi Watts, Penguin Audio, 6hr 50min
The actor narrates her memoir on her experience of early menopause and dispenses advice for other women doing battle with their hormones.

Imminent
Luis Elizondo, John Blake, 9hr 59min
A first-hand account of the Pentagon’s investigation into the existence of UFOs by a one-time insider. Elizondo reads.