'Truly extraordinary books are rare, and this is one of them' – Roddy Doyle

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize
Finalist for the Orwell Prize for Fiction

James is a profound and ferociously funny literary reimagining from one of our greatest living writers, Percival Everett.

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.

So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all . . .

'Who should read this book? Every single person in the country' – Ann Patchett

'A towering achievement' – The 2024 Booker Prize judges

'My favourite novel this year' – Salman Rushdie

'Scorchingly funny' – The Sunday Times, 'Books of the Year'

'This may be Everett's best book yet' – Bonnie Garmus

'Playful and viciously comic' – The Telegraph, 'Books of the Year'

A 'Book of the Year' for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Independent, New Statesman, i newspaper, TLS, The Spectator and The Economist

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024

A Book of the Year for the New York Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Times, NPR, Elle and Vulture*

One of Barack Obama's Favourite Reads of Summer 2024

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction Best Debut

‘Explosive’ Guardian

‘An absolute knock-out . . . Excellent’ Daily Telegraph

‘An ambitious, exciting debut. You emerge from it sweaty, pummelled and ready for your next fight’ Times

‘A knock-out . . . Headshot feels like the complete deal in a way we rarely see in debut fiction: efficient, forceful, just messy enough to be interesting and leaving space in the ring for the reader’ Observer

‘A Knockout debut novel ... Exhilarating’ Spectator

‘Compelling’ Daily Mail

‘Insightful, bold and accomplished, Headshot is also heartfelt’ Times Literary Supplement

‘This novel is about how intoxicating it is “to play a sport that requires one to look in their opponent’s eyes.” It is about pride and control and the way a fighter’s “blood and her salty tears and slick sweat make it look like she is leaking pink Kool-Aid from her nostrils.” It’s about the joy of violence, joy in the unambiguous event’ New York Times

'One of the most dazzling debuts of the year’ Marie Claire

An electrifying debut novel about the radical intimacy of physical competition

Headshot is the story of the eight best teenage girl boxers in the United States, told over the two days of a championship tournament and structured as a series of face-offs. As the girls’ pasts and futures collide, the specific joy and violence of the sport comes to life with electric energy, and a portrait emerges of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness and sheer physical pleasure that motivates each of these young women to fight.

This is a novel about the radicalness and strangeness of being physically intimate with another human when you are measuring your own body, through competition, against theirs. What does the intimacy of a physical competition feel like? What does it mean to walk through life in the bodies we’ve been given, and what does it mean to use those bodies with abandon?

Funny, propulsive, obsessive and ecstatic, Headshot is equal parts subtle and intense, as it brings us to the sidelines of the ring and above and beyond it, examining closely the eight girls’ lives, which intersect for a moment – a universe that shimmers and resonates.