Demon Copperhead is a modern adaptation of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, written by Barbara Kingsolver in 2022. The novel won two prestigious awards in 2023: the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The novel is set in the present-day South of the United States, especially in the mountainous region of Virginia. It is the story of Damon Fields, also known as Demon Copperhead, who was born to a young single mother in a trailer park.
He inherits nothing from his father except his handsome face and his copper hair, and he has to rely on his sharp tongue and his survival skills to get through life. The novel spans from Demon’s birth to his adulthood, as he experiences hardship, abuse, exploitation, addiction, love, and loss. He also feels invisible and neglected by a society that does not care about rural people. He encounters various people who either help him or harm him, some of whom are similar to those in Dickens’ original novel. The novel is told from Demon’s perspective in his own honest and witty voice, and it is acclaimed for its humor, empathy, and social critique.
About The Author
Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in Africa in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in Biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. Her most famous works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a non-fiction account of her family’s attempts to eat locally.
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