I this book because...
Kingsolver is so clever in this book, transplanting the framework of David Copperfield to the 21st-century hills of eastern Kentucky.
Despite the heavy subject matter, opioid addiction, poverty, the foster care system, it is an entertaining, at times even funny, read. Eastern Kentucky is often written off as “hillbilly” and backward, but this book makes you empathize with the characters, understand their limited (often poor) choices, and appreciate their resilience in the face of all the forces working against them.
59 authors picked Demon Copperhead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
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…