February 10, 2023, 11:17am
Percival Everett, one of the country’s most prolific and critically acclaimed “writer’s writers,” has just inked a deal for what seems certain to be his highest profile novel to date.
James, Everett’s 24th novel, has been pitched as “a harrowing and ferociously funny retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.”
According to Publishers Marketplace, James was sold at auction to Lee Boudreaux at Doubleday, in a major deal ($500,000+), and is set to be published in March 2024.
Everett—whose most famous works include Erasure, I Am Not Sidney Poitier, So Much Blue, and The Trees (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year)—has published almost exclusively through Minneapolis indie Graywolf Press for the past 25 years, so this move marks a significant departure for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist.