NEW YORK (AP) — “James,” Percival Everett ’s acclaimed remodeling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
Everett’s model of Mark Twain’s traditional, now narrated by the enslaved title character, already gained the Nationwide Guide Award, the Kirkus Prize and the Carnegie Medal for fiction.
The opposite nominees introduced Monday are ’Pemi Aguda’s “Ghostroots,” Susan Muaddi Darraj’s “Behind You Is the Sea,” Garth Greenwell’s “Small Rain” and Danzy Senna’s “Colored Television.”
“These five books moved us with their compassion, their imagination, their quiet artistry,” in keeping with a press release from the judging panel. “They view our world from oblique and unsettling angles while giving us new ways to comprehend the often unimaginable: illness, displacement, enslavement, exile. Yet they also burst with humor and light, with characters who gleam and sing from the page.”
The winner will likely be introduced in early April. First prize comes with a $15,000 money award. Runners-up every obtain $5,000. Earlier honorees embrace Philip Roth, Ann Patchett and Yiyun Li.
