Demon Copperhead
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Publisher: Jonathan Ball
This is a fascinating insight into the lives of “hillbilly rednecks”, a term hated by the folk who people this story.
Told by a boy named Demon Copperhead, it’s a modern-day story of poverty, child abandonment and the opioid crisis in the heart of Appalachian country.
Demon, sucked into foster care at 11 years old, is resourceful and smart. He and his foster friends must learn to survive ‒ many in cruel underworlds ‒ in a place with few mercies.
Kingsolver illustrates the harshness of life in areas of economic hopelessness, where systems and people fail vulnerable children who desperately need to be protected, and where sometimes it is only the sense of community that holds some souls together.
The subject matter is bleak, but Kingsolver’s writing is beautiful and an enthralling tale of the triumph of hope over despair. ‒ Lindsay Slogrove
The Independent on Saturday