My Jim: A Novel [Paperback]

To help her granddaughter accept the risks of loving, Sadie Watson mines her memory for the tale of the unquenchable love of her life, Jim. Sadie’s Jim was an ambitious young slave and seer who, when faced with the prospect of being sold, escaped down the Mississippi with a white boy named Huck Finn. Sadie is suddenly left alone, worried about her children, reviled as a witch, punished for Jim’s escape, and convinced her husband is dead. But Sadie’s will and her love for Jim animate her life and see her through.

Told with spare eloquence and mirroring the true stories of countless slave women,My Jimrecreates one of the most controversial characters in American literature. A nuanced critique of the great American novel,My Jimis a haunting and inspiring story about freedom, longing, and the remarkable endurance of love.



Look for the Reader’s Group Guide at the back of this book.“A wonderful first-person narrative . . . both a love story and a chronicle of a brutal time in American history.” —Chicago Tribune

“My Jimis a compelling, eloquently written novel that can stand on its own merits beside the great works that inspired it.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Rawles’s affecting spin-off of Twain’s classic gives the resilient Sadie Watson a harrowing story and a powerful voice to tell it.” —Entertainment Weekly

“In a spare, naturalistic style that’s reminiscent of oral history, Rawles covers territory Twain did not....As heart-wrenching a personal history as any recorded in American literature.” —New York Times Book ReviewNancy Rawles is an award-winning novelist and playwright. Her novelLove Like Gumbowas the recipient of the American Book Award. She lives in Seattle.Written in the great literary tradition of novels of American slavery, fromBelovedtoThe l³.