In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty and addiction aren’t ideas. They’re as natural as the grass grows. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he’s willing to travel to try and get there.
Introduction to the author and book
Barbara Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955, Annapolis, Maryland, USA): American writer and political activist whose best-known novels concern the endurance of people living in often inhospitable environments and the beauty to be found even in such harsh circumstances..
Barbara Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky. She earned degrees in biology from DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and has worked as a freelance writer and author since 1985. She published her first novel, The Bean Trees, in 1988, during a period of chronic insomnia after her first pregnancy.
At various times in her adult life she has lived and worked in Europe, Africa, Asia, Mexico, and South America.
She has two daughters (born in 1987 and 1996). Her husband, Steven Hopp, teaches environmental studies. Since June 2004, Barbara and her family have lived on a farm in southern Appalachia.
Her books have been translated into more than two dozen languages, and have been adopted into the core literature curriculum in high schools and colleges throughout America.
Demon Copperhead (published in 2023. 560 pages)
A reimagining of Dickens’ David Copperfield set in poverty-stricken Virginia at the height of the opioid crisis . . . ‘a vast, mad, Dickensian sprawl of a novel’.t!
This is the tale of Demon Copperhead: our hero. A boy with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-coloured hair, bucket-loads of charm and a talent or two the world is yet to discover. Life is not set fair for Demon as he escorts us on his journey through the modern perils of foster care, athletic success and addiction, the dizzying highs of true love, and the crushing losses that can accompany it.
Demon’s story begins (in his own voice) with his traumatic birth to a teenaged mother in a ‘single-wide trailer’ (caravan!) looking ‘like a little blue prize-fighter’. For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise. Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.
But Demon is a fighter, a survivor. Inspired by the unflinching truth-telling of David Copperfield, Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger, compassion and humour, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story told through an unforgettable cast of characters. Demon is the voice of a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind. It will break and mend your heart in the way only the best fiction can.
Reinventing Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield . . . this polemical epic held me spellbound with its wisecracking Holden Caulfield-esque narration, its lyrical evocation of place, its humour, heart, pain and redemption. Unmissable. The Bookseller, Book of the Month
What do you think of this novel?
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Vicki James & Helen Sinclair
The next book for February 24 will be …
Submarine by Joe Dunthorne
Just to say, I’m really enjoying this book and thank you very much for the recommendation, Vicki and Helen. Unfortunately, I had to finish The Bee Sting first (which took a while) and am now nowhere near to finishing Demon Copperfield and at my current rate of progress I’ll be late with any comments on Submarine too. Maybe I’ll skip that one and go straight to the March book of the month.