Demon Copperhead

Demon grows up in a poor town in America today. His mother is a teen who struggles with drug use. His dead father left him good looks and copper-red hair. Sharp wit and a will to live help him cope. He faces foster care, forced work, and leaving school. He does well in sports, but then gets hooked on drugs. Troubled love and loss follow.

Barbara Kingsolver's novel tells how a boy grows up. It also looks at the faults in society. Demon tells his own tale with humor and pain. Systems fail him and shape his life. Rural customs and ties shape it too. As he learns to tell his story, he gains control over it.

The novel draws on Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. Dickens drew on his own harsh youth and his father's death. Kingsolver shifts the focus from life in the Victorian age. She turns to poor lives in America today. She honors Dickens and calls out neglect that still harms children.

The book won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and Women's Prize for Fiction. Oprah's Book Club chose it in 2022. Kingsolver writes poems, essays, and nonfiction too. She has written nine bestsellers. Her work has come out in more than twenty languages. She belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She received the National Humanities Medal in 2000. She and her husband live on a farm in the southern Appalachians.