James
American novelist, born 1956. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2025, the British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year in 2025 and the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024.
James is a 2024 novel by Percival Everett. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2024 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2025.
In historical fiction, Black American
On 5 of the 11 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Percival Everett
- First published
- 2024
- Length
- 320 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- Booker Prize shortlist, 2024
- National Book Award for Fiction winner, 2024
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, 2025
- British Book Awards Fiction winner, 2025
- Genre
- Historical fiction, Adventure, Black American, Political
Is James worth reading?
5 of the 11 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the British Book Awards' Fiction Book of the Year and the National Book Award for Fiction.
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| Booker Prize (winners and shortlists) (Booker Prize Foundation, 2024) | Shortlist | See the list |
| British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year (winners and shortlists) (The Bookseller, 2025) | Winner | See the list |
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 2024) | Winner | See the list |
| Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists) (Columbia University, 2025) | Winner | See the list |
| Waterstones Book of the Year (winners and shortlists) (Waterstones, 2012-) | Shortlist | See the list |
Best edition of James
The edition we link to is the Picador paperback (2025), 320 pages.
- Publisher
- Picador (paperback, 2025)
- Pages
- 320
- ISBN
- 9781035031269
How critics, prizes and readers rate James
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 92% of the points available on prize lists, against 20% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 0% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work