"Demon Copperhead," by Barbara Kingsolver

*Note: At 560 pages, this is one of the longest books we've read. You might want to give yourself some extra time for this selection. As such, instead of the typical 4 weeks between our meetings, I'm scheduling 6 weeks between our August get-together and this one.*

*A second note: Your organizer highly recommends the audiobook. If you're an audiobook fan, you'll love this one. If you've never tried audiobooks before, this might be a good one to dip your toes into the format. You can borrow a free e-copy HERE. *

It goes without saying that this title has crossed most, if not all, readers' radars over the two years since its publication. It's won many of the biggest literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and Women's Prize. The novel has garnered universal praise from the likes of Jodi Picoult, Ann Patchett, and Stephen King as a quintessential American Novel of all time, let alone the 21st Century. The author is considered one of the most important writers of the 20th and 21st Centuries by Writers Digest and Publishers Weekly.

Set in modern Appalachia, Kingsolver creates characters we can all understand, and she tackles contemporary issues that deeply impact our national fabric, including the opioid crisis and single parenthood.

An incredibly rich novel in character, setting, and plot, let's delve into the twists & turns of this heavier coming-of-age literary fiction tale!

From Goodreads:

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.