Percival Everett, a quietly prolific writer of noteworthy novels over the past four decades, may have gained a new audience from the recent Oscar-nominated film American Fiction, based on his 2003 book Erasure. His latest work, James, reimagines Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck’s companion Jim. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article covers similar retellings of other classic tales, such as Albert Camus’ The Stranger and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
A main theme of Everett’s novel is language, as it shows Jim and other enslaved people of Twain’s time using strategic code switching to protect themselves. Linguist Anne Curzan explores related topics in Says Who?, which looks at how power dynamics have historically affected what is considered “standard” English, and strives for a flexible, inclusive and fun approach to grammar. Those interested in social aspects of history may also love bestselling author Leigh Bardugo’s scintillating latest, The Familiar, which follows Luzia, a servant with a magical secret, during the tumultuous time of the Spanish Inquisition.
Meanwhile, Hampton Sides’ The Wide Wide Sea and Jessica J. Lee’s Dispersals both tackle past journeys with aplomb — the last voyage of Captain James Cook and the movements of various plants across land and sea, respectively.
And readers craving the cream of contemporary literary fiction will find much to savor in Rachel Lyon’s Fruit of the Dead, a thoroughly modern retelling of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone.
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