Percival Everett’s James wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction
Percival Everett has won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, James.
The other finalists in fiction were Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel, Mice 1961 by Stacey Levine and The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones.
‘James is one of the most thrilling, and vital, novels of this century and it is terrific to see it honoured by the Pulitzer. We are all so very proud to be Percival's UK publisher.’
Mary Mount, Picador Publisher
Published in April 2024 in hardback (Mantle) and February in paperback (Picador) to wide critical acclaim, the Sunday Times bestseller was a 'Book of the Year' in The Observer, The Times & Sunday Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Spectator, New Statesman, Independent, TLS, The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, i newspaper, The Economist, The Irish Times, The New York Times, TIME and The New Yorker.
It was a finalist for the 2024 Booker Prize and the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, and also won the 2024 National Book Award for fiction.
‘I am shocked and pleased, but mostly shocked. This is a wonderful honor. I am especially flattered to have been considered along with the other finalists.’
Percival Everett, speaking through his US publisher, Doubleday
James
by Percival Everett
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Percival Everett lays out a precise and painful depiction of the Antebellum South on the cusp of Civil War, shot through with his trademark dry humour and semantic flair. The novel is told from the perspective of James (formerly ‘Jim’), the affable companion of Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain’s novel. Crucially in Everett’s re-telling, James is resurrected from the graveyard of racist archetypes, and is given multiple dimensions and a character arc of his own: when James embarks on a quest to secure his wife and daughter’s freedom, Huck tags along for the ride.
