Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

[Tricia]

What a beautiful, heartbreaking book. Demon Copperhead is a modern day adaptation of David Copperfield set in Appalachia during the early days of the opioid crisis. Damon Fields, known by the nickname Demon Copperhead, is a young orphan navigating the foster care system after his mother ODs. He is a smart, funny, angry, hurting kid with a talent for drawing and a powerful survival instinct. The depictions of addiction are harrowing, and anger at the pharmaceutical industry is palpable throughout the book. There are also lovely, tender moments, particularly when people show unexpected kindness to Demon, like his thoughtful, gentle foster brother Tommy. It is such a smart idea to transplant the Dickens story to this particular time and place. While it is specific to the struggles of this community that Kingsolver comes from, it also drives home the universal toll of poverty and inequity. A tour-de-force of a book.