Demon Copperhead
Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction
-
-
4.5 • 356 Ratings
-
-
- $0.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES READERS BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
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
'Without a doubt the best book I'll read this year.' KATE ATKINSON
'It's EPIC. Righteously angry, DEEPLY moving and exquisitely written.' MARIAN KEYES
'Daring, entertaining and highly readable.' The Times
'Electrifying.' Daily Mail
'A blaze of a book.' RACHEL JOYCE
'A masterclass.' RICHARD POWERS
'Masterful.' Pulitzer Prize
'Powerful.' Guardian
'A work of genius.' KATE MOSSE
____________
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.
____________
Readers love Demon Copperhead:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Outstanding . . . I don't know how someone can write a book like this: inhabit a totally different character and create it with such empathy, respect and fullness.'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Powerful and brilliant. To immerse yourself in a Kingsolver novel is to put yourself in the hands of a master.'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'This was one of the greatest books I have read . . . Kingsolver is a magician with words, and her rage quietly seeps from each page.'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Raw, angry, starkly beautiful . . . Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read.'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'An incredibly raw and moving read, with a big-hearted hero who will stay with me for a long time.'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I cannot overstate how absorbing this book is. It is wonderful and has restored my faith in fiction and novels.'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Thought Provoking
I don’t know how I feel about this book
It’s hard to describe
Beautifully written and incredibly researched
But the subject matter was hard to read and absorb
I guess that was the purpose as we live through our comfortable lives !!!
O Boy
You get sucked in, you can’t stop reading it but you don’t want to read it. Amazing book, amazing story, amazing language.
Demon Copperhead
Shaky to start but kept going and her narrative kept giving. One of the most gifted novelists of today.