May this novel be widely read and championed.” - Minneapolis Star-Tribune More than ever, she is our literary mirror and window.

Kingsolver has some of Mark Twain in her, along with 21st-century gifts of her own. A page turner and Kingsolver’s best novel by far. Kingsolver’s novel sweeps you along just as powerfully as the original does.” - New York Times

Demon Copperhead reimagines Dickens’s story in a modern-day rural America contending with poverty and opioid addiction.Kingsolver and Dickens overlap: both of them exuberant writers of social novels with a strong political message and a concern for the lower classes. I think it’s her best.” - Beth Macy, author of Dopesick I’m crazy about this book, which parses the epidemic in a beautiful and intimate new way. 'Demon is a voice for the ages-akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield-only even more resilient. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.” (Ron Charles, Washington Post)įrom the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity 'Demon is a voice for the ages-akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield-only even more resilient.” -Beth Macy, author of Dopesick An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller.A NEW YORK TIMES 'TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2022'

Demon copperhead book review