This past Christmas, my daughter and son-in-law fed my reading life. One of the volumes I received from them was Everett’s James. It is a heartbreaking, deeply human continuation of Huck Finn, but told from Jim’s perspective.

Jim was the slave, you’ll remember from Huck Finn, as he and Huck fled on the raft, and down the river, towards the possibility of freedom.

But in this volume, the narrative is told from the perspective of Jim–and the human connections, the human betrayals, and the human predicament are explored with mastery. Highly recommended.