Hoping to find more incredible reads? Then welcome to the Womrath Book Club, a gathering of bookworms and literature enthusiasts! Each month we will be selecting one of our staff picks for you to read, and for us to discuss together. This event will take place on the third Thursday of each month.

For our April 18th session, we will be reading James by Percival Everett. This brilliant re-imagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is told from Jim’s point of view and is sure to become a literary classic.

This in-person event will be held at Womrath Bookshop on Pondfield Road in Bronxville, NY, USA. We’ll dive into captivating stories, exchange thoughts, and discover new literary gems together. Whether you’re a seasoned reader or just starting your reading journey, this club is for you! Let’s embark on an exciting literary adventure together at the Womrath Book Club!

This event is free, but registration is required.

About James

When the enslaved 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 death to escape his violent father and recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

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

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

About Percival Everett

Percival Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His most recent books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, Erasure, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He has received the NBCC Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award and The Windham Campbell Prize from Yale University. American Fiction, the feature film based on his novel Erasure, was released in 2023 and was awarded the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Danzy Senna, and their children.

Time: 7:00 pm EST

Free!

Registration