Demon Copperhead: Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction
£7.60£9.50 (-20%)
**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.
‘Legit about to get an ‘I’d rather be reading Demon Copperhead’ sticker for my Nissan Murano.’ ROB DELANEY
____________
What readers are saying:
***** ‘An amazing, beautifully written story I cannot wait to recommend to everyone I know.’
***** ‘Powerful and brilliant. To immerse yourself in a Kingsolver novel is to put yourself in the hands of a master.’
***** ‘A must read and heart-opening book.’
***** ‘Raw, angry, starkly beautiful. . . Genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read.’
***** ‘Amazingly complex. . . [Kingsolver] is, by far, one of the greatest living authors’
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | Faber & Faber, Main – Re-issue edition (4 May 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 560 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0571376487 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0571376483 |
| Dimensions | 12.9 x 3.3 x 19.8 cm |
by Nari V
For lovers of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, this is such a clever, original adaptation of that tale, bringing it into a contemporary context without losing any of Dicken’s original clever depiction of how harsh the world is to the vulnerable and dispossessed. The characters and events are richly drawn and utterly believable, events are based around actual issues that were key to the era. The setting, Mid America in the mid 90’s, draws on the scandalous exploitation of the poor in that period every bit as much as Dickens original work did in the late Victorian time he was writing in. Chilling to see how little has changed in the 100 odd years since Dickens published his work – and that is a key message of this book. But it’s also a banging good read – I was absolutely hooked and invested from page 1 in all the characters and couldn’t wait to find out what happened to them. The author won the Pulitzer prize for fiction for this book and it was well deserved. Buy it, its a keeper.
by P. G. Harris
About two thirds of the way through Demon Copperhead (real name Damon Fields), the eponymous central character observes, (I paraphrase) that Charles Dickens, despite being dead, old, and foreign, truly understood the fate over orphans, mistreated by people who cared nothing for them, to the extent that one could imagine he was “from round here”.
That encapsulates Barbara Kingsolver’s retelling of David Copperfield, transposed to the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. The conservative novelist Anthony Trollope sneeringly referred to Dickens as “The Social Reformer”. Likewise Kingsolver will undoubtedly be dismissed as “woke” or “politically correct”.
However, Dickens, despite the barbs of the lesser novelist, justifiably attacked genuine societal ills, and likewise Kingsolver takes aim at some deserving targets and attacks them with real energy. At the heart of both works is an anger at childhood poverty, the consequent exploitation, and the inadequacy of society’s response. Kingsolver also adds the disenfranchisement of rural communities and the criminal over selling of painkillers by big-pharma.
While there are inevitably differences (Demon’s storytelling talent is graphical rather than verbal, and I don’t recall David wrecking his knee by playing American football), Kingsolver parallels Dickens’ masterpiece fairly closely, particularly in her choice of characters. David’s charismatic flawed friend here becomes Sterling Ford, whom Demon meets while being employed as a virtual slave by a farmer nicknamed Creaky. Betsy Woodall becomes his estranged grandmother rather than his great aunt. He is mentored by a kind-hearted art teacher Ms Annie. The two women in his life are the childlike Dori, and the tomboyish Angus.
Kingsolver tells a good story and her attacks on social injustice are wholly justified. However, this is not a book I could love, and the problems I have with it are closely interlinked. At the heart of this is that the book is simply too long. I enjoyed (if that is the right word) something like the first half, and the final 50 pages or so really pick up, but there were some sections in the heart of the book where it felt like wading through quicksand, exerting a great deal of energy without getting very far. In some ways that could in itself be viewed as a metaphor for the journey of Demon’s life, but clever structure doesn’t necessarily make for an engaging story.
The second aspect of the problem is the use to which the author puts the extra length, namely to pour extra misery on to Demon’s head. Three works I struggle to fully appreciate are Antony and Cleopatra, Death of a Salesman and Shuggie Bain, the reason being that all reach a point where the misery goes on for so long , with no light to balance the shade, that I find myself becoming disengaged. This strays down that same path.
In comparing the bildungsromans of Dickens and Kingsolver, the big difference is light and shade. Dickens brings a wit and lightness of touch, where the light serves as a contrast to the darkness. Kingsolver does not provide that illumination. Even with the excess length, she barely finds time to shine the light at the end of Demon’s tunnel. Nowhere is the excess darkness shown better than in the case of the McCobbs, who simply add more misery to Demon’s life, compared to the Micawbers who, though tragic, also provide a new and different note to the story.
I have been quite harsh on what I see as the flaws of this novel, but ultimately I did find it a worthwhile read, if you can just find your way, like Demon, through the darkness.
by Kindle Customer
Overall I think the idea of this story is brilliant and brings the classic story into the modern day. It also brings home what huge issues we still need to overcome in our society.
I loved how the book was like an epic journey, not knowing what was going to happen from page to page, from chapter to chapter. It gripped me and brought out many emotions I don’t usually feel with any type of fiction.
The variation of settings and characters is impressive and the details in most of their backstories is clever and well imagined. This all made me feel like I had a good understanding of an area that I don’t know much about.
I loved every chapter apart from one. Without giving much away it was the chapter that focused on Damon’s football “fame”. I felt it was just a little too cliché as it followed a similar pattern to showing the “benefits” of being a star footballer that too many other fictional stories have covered. This did not put me off though as the story up until then was captivating and so it followed after that particular chapter.
Overall a brilliantly written book, a real page turner and a brilliant idea crafted in a touching, beautiful and sensitive way. The small negative is probably more personal preference than anything else and it does nothing to conclude that this is an excellent book. Well worth reading.
by Kindle Customer
I am usually the guy that finishes a review and hits the star button on my kindle and on to the next book. This book is different. The beauty of the writing and the ugliness of Demon’s life contrast in a way that makes this book unputdownable.
It’s not a misery novel it’s angry, hopeful and so full of love that the end left me tearful and moved.
This as a cynical 57 year old Londoner, is no mean feat.
I know this is just one of thousands of five star reviews but this is a thing of beauty that shouldn’t be ignored.
Read it and love it as I did