Description
“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.” In the rugged mountains of southern Appalachia, this tale follows a boy born to a teenage single mother in a single-wide trailer. He has no assets except his deceased father’s striking looks, copper-colored hair, sharp wit, and a fierce instinct for survival. Narrated in his unflinching voice, the story races through his life as he confronts the challenges of foster care, child labor, failing schools, athletic achievements, addiction, heartbreaking loves, and profound losses. Throughout, he grapples with his invisibility in a culture that has left rural people behind, even forsaking them for superheroes in cities.
Inspired by Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield,” Barbara Kingsolver draws on Dickens’ insights into institutional poverty and its impact on children, issues that remain unresolved today. While familiarity with Dickens is not required, his influence permeates this narrative. By reimagining a Victorian epic in the modern American South, Kingsolver channels Dickens’ righteous anger, compassion, and, most importantly, his belief in the transformative power of a compelling story. “Demon Copperhead” gives voice to a new generation of lost boys and all those born into beautiful, yet cursed, places they cannot bear to leave behind.