James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner
Told through the eyes of Demon, a boy from Appalachia, this modern David Copperfield follows cycles of poverty, foster care, addiction, and exploitation. It moves between humor and pain to render a neglected region with force and clarity.
Work Information
Dickens provides the frame, but Appalachian reality gives the novel its urgency.
As a response to David Copperfield, the novel follows a boy's survival voice through the linked realities of poverty and addiction in the contemporary American South. It is read as a long novel that combines Dickensian momentum with sharp contemporary social criticism.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Harper
- Published
- 2022-10-18
- Pages
- 560 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 3.76 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780063251922
- ISBN-10
- 0063251922
- Price
- 5601 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Coming of Age
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION New York Times Readers’ Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21 st Century • An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller • A New York Times "Ten Best Books of the Year" "Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient.” —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick "May be the best novel of [the year]. . . . Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this is the story of an irrepressible boy nobody wants, but readers will love.” — Ron Charles, Washington Post From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees and the recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters , a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead 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. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon 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.
Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered , The Bean Trees , and The Poisonwood Bible , as well as books of poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and Coyote’s Wild Home , a children’s book co-authored with Lily Kingsolver. She also collaborated with family members on the influential Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life . Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has earned a devoted readership at home and abroad. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received numerous awards and honors including the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Demon Copperhead , the National Humanities Medal, and most recently, the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She lives with her husband on a farm in southern Appalachia.
Reviews
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Quite a roller coaster.
Gets you inside another person’s head. The head of someone fighting addiction. Well written and sure to evoke empathy. Lots about the shenanigans of the pharmaceutical industry to make money at the expense of communities. Revealing and informative.
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Excellent retelling of David Copperfield.
One of my favourite books of the past decade. It’s a tough read in parts, dysfunctional families and State, but in very expressive language. There are moments of laughter that transcend descriptions of brutality and abuse. I learned more about tobacco farming than I would ever expect. There is room for hope and redemption, loved the constancy of “Angus”.
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Copperhead lives matter.
There is a good French book about a red hair boy : Poil de Carotte by Jules Renard. Some people dislike read hair women : they say they are witches or they smell. It' s pure racism. Being a red hair orphan must be hard to live. American foster care looks neither worse nor better than French foster care. Some foster care children manage to make a success of their life though.
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Only received four chapters
I want to finish reading but I only received four chapters on this device.
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Brilliantly written
One of the best books I've ever read, it's clear why it won a Pulitzer, don't think I'll ever be able to forget demon.
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Empfehlenswert
Nachdem es etwas dauert, sich in den Slang einzulesen, ist die Geschichte wirklich sehr spannend, teils erschütternd, aber am Ende doch positiv. Trifft den aktuellen Zeitgeist der Verhältnisse in vielen Teilen der USA, was bestimmt leider nicht besser wird.