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Demon Copperhead
Demon Copperhead
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
**A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** A masterful recasting of David Copperfield, narrated by an Appalachian boy whose wise, unwavering voice relates his encounters with poverty, addiction, institutional failures and moral collapse-and his efforts to conquer them. - the Pulitzer
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
TWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION
THE MULTI-MILLION COPY SELLING AUTHOR
BOOK AT BEDTIME ON BBC RADIO 4
AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
WITH OVER 29,000 5* REVIEWS 'Extraordinary.' OPRAH
'She means to save us by telling us stories. . . She comes closer than anyone else I know.' ANN PATCHETT
'Electrifying. . . Every sentence here sizzles.' Daily Mail
'It's EPIC. Righteously angry, DEEPLY moving and exquisitely written.' MARIAN KEYES
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Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can. Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' 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.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster care. 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.
Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.
'Legit about to get an 'I'd rather be reading Demon Copperhead' sticker for my Nissan Murano.' ROB DELANEY
____________
What readers are saying: ***** 'An amazing, beautifully written story I cannot wait to recommend to everyone I know.' ***** 'Powerful and brilliant. To immerse yourself in a Kingsolver novel is to put yourself in the hands of a master.'
***** 'A must read and heart-opening book.' ***** 'Raw, angry, starkly beautiful. . . Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read.'
***** 'Amazingly complex. . . [Kingsolver] is, by far, one of the greatest living authors'
**A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** A masterful recasting of David Copperfield, narrated by an Appalachian boy whose wise, unwavering voice relates his encounters with poverty, addiction, institutional failures and moral collapse-and his efforts to conquer them. - the Pulitzer
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
TWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION
THE MULTI-MILLION COPY SELLING AUTHOR
BOOK AT BEDTIME ON BBC RADIO 4
AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
WITH OVER 29,000 5* REVIEWS 'Extraordinary.' OPRAH
'She means to save us by telling us stories. . . She comes closer than anyone else I know.' ANN PATCHETT
'Electrifying. . . Every sentence here sizzles.' Daily Mail
'It's EPIC. Righteously angry, DEEPLY moving and exquisitely written.' MARIAN KEYES
____________
Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only the best fiction can. Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' 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.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster care. 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.
Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.
'Legit about to get an 'I'd rather be reading Demon Copperhead' sticker for my Nissan Murano.' ROB DELANEY
____________
What readers are saying: ***** 'An amazing, beautifully written story I cannot wait to recommend to everyone I know.' ***** 'Powerful and brilliant. To immerse yourself in a Kingsolver novel is to put yourself in the hands of a master.'
***** 'A must read and heart-opening book.' ***** 'Raw, angry, starkly beautiful. . . Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read.'
***** 'Amazingly complex. . . [Kingsolver] is, by far, one of the greatest living authors'
Reviews-
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Starred review from August 29, 2022
Kingsolver (Unsheltered) offers a deeply evocative story of a boy born to an impoverished single mother. In this self-styled, modern adaptation of Dickens’s David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead, 11, is the quick-witted son and budding cartoonist of a troubled young mother and a stepfather in southern Appalachia’s Lee County, Va.; eventually, his mother’s opioid addiction places Demon in various foster homes, where he is forced to earn his keep through work (even though his guardians are paid) and is always hungry from lack of food. After a guardian steals his money, Demon hitchhikes to Tennessee in search of his paternal grandmother. She is welcoming, but will not raise him, and sends him back to live with the town’s celebrated high school football coach as his new guardian, a widower who lives in a castle-like home with his boyish daughter, Angus. Demon’s teen years settle briefly with fame on the football field and a girlfriend, Dori. But stability is short-lived after a football injury and as he and Dori become addicted to opioids (“We were storybook orphans on drugs”). Kingsolver’s account of the opioid epidemic and its impact on the social fabric of Appalachia is drawn to heartbreaking effect. This is a powerful story, both brilliant in its many social messages regarding foster care, child hunger, and rural struggles, and breathless in its delivery. -
DAVID COPPERFIELD is the starting point for this audiobook, but it's not a template. Narrator Charlie Thurston's fine regional accent takes listeners to southwest Virginia, a place that dives deep into the truths of rural poverty. Damon Fields tells his own story, as in the Dickens novel, but he faces difficulties beyond what the English author imagined. One such challenge is the transformation of his name, which occurs because of his bright red hair. Nearly everyone in this story is from Lee County, so accents don't vary much. But Thurston manages to suggest all the major characters with subtle shifts of timbre, and he keeps Damon's sad narrative from sounding like whining. The novel is depressing yet gripping, and its conclusion, at least, is hopeful. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
