Literary Fiction · DarkDavid Copperfield retold: a boy born in a Virginia trailer to a teenage mother
Demon Copperhead
A boy born to a teenage mother in a trailer fights to survive in Appalachia
Demon is born in a trailer in the mountains of southern Appalachia to a teenage single mother. He has little beyond his late father's copper hair, a sharp wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Foster care, child labor, failing schools, addiction and painful losses all lie ahead, and he feels overlooked by a culture that has turned away from rural people. Barbara Kingsolver moves Charles Dickens's David Copperfield to the contemporary American South and speaks for a new generation of lost boys.
More about this book
Who
Damon Fields, nicknamed Demon Copperhead for his red hair, born to a single teenage mother in a trailer, with little beyond his late father's copper hair, a sharp wit and a fierce talent for survival. As a small child he spends much of his time with the neighbors, Nance and Mr. Peggot, who are raising their grandson Matt, nicknamed Maggot. The two boys are the same age and become best friends.
World
Lee County, Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains.
What makes it different
Kingsolver took her inspiration from Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, and many of her characters have Dickensian counterparts. The themes are social and economic divides in Appalachia, child poverty and drug addiction, with a focus on the opioid crisis.
Feel
A 560-page novel. It shared the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Trust and won the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction, making Kingsolver the first author to win that prize twice.