A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, who has recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, this is where the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River begins, toward the elusive and often unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure at the myriad stopping points along the riverbanks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and the Dauphin), Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion are shown in a radically new light.