Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Hello,

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood scored what is probably an all-time high of 9.3/10 last night at The Roundhouse — let's see if we can top that in January!

After putting it to the vote, in January we will be going for Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

Of the book, publishers faber write:
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.
(faber: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571376483-demon-copperhead/)

As for author Barbara Kingsolver, Wikipedia says:
Barbara Kingsolver is a Pulitzer Prize winning American novelist, essayist and poet... In 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel Demon Copperhead. Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments.
(Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Kingsolver)

Guardian review of Demon Copperhead:
With its bold reversals of fate and flamboyant cast, this is storytelling on a grand scale – Dickensian, you might say, and Kingsolver does indeed describe Demon Copperhead as a contemporary adaptation of David Copperfield*. That novel provides her epigraph: "It’s in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present."*
Hephzibah Anderson, Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/16/demon-copperhead-by-barbara-kingsolver-review-appalachian-saga-in-the-spirit-of-dickens)

Can't go wrong then, can we?

Make sure you have read the book and bring a suggestion for the Group to read ahead of the February meeting for us all to vote on.

£1.50 fee is to help with the organiser's meetup.com costs.

Bring your pub money but you don't have to bring a copy of the book.
Best wishes,

David