Oprah just announced that her new OBC selection is Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper). About the pick, Oprah said: “This is the second time I’ve chosen one of Barbara Kingsolver’s novels for my book club—22 years ago we named The Poisonwood Bible as a selection. Her latest book grabbed me from its opening lines. I so admire the way Barbara has taken the plight of a young boy and invited us on his journey through loss, the foster system, addiction, and so much more. The novel speaks to so many of our country’s relevant issues, but most importantly, it’s absolutely riveting. Can’t wait to hear what other readers think!”
Demon Copperhead re-envisions the Charles Dickens classic David Copperfield, setting it in modern-day Appalachia. Kingsolver conceived the idea while on a visit to Dickens’s historic seaside English retreat and actually started writing Demon Copperhead at Dickens’s own desk. It’s Kingsolver’s 17th novel in some three decades, and in writing it, she says she wanted to counter some of the condescension and downright snobbery directed at the region in which she was born and still lives, an area whose people, she believes, have been exploited for generations, most recently by pharmaceutical companies who targeted Appalachian residents and created the current opioid crisis. As Kingsolver recently told The New York Times, this produced “a generation of kids who’ve had their lives torn apart.”
Demon Copperhead spins the tale of a boy born to a teenaged mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and red 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 culture that’s been largely abandoned.
Here’s what Kingsolver had to say upon finding out Demon Copperhead had been chosen for Oprah’s Book Club: “Getting that call from Oprah is the highest literary prize on the planet, if you ask me,” she said. "Not just because of the powerful way she connects books and readers, but because of the reader she is herself. I could barely hold it together when she described my own book to me on the phone—her appreciation of the craft, the empathy, and how it touched her personally.”
Oprah will sit down with the author and Oprah Daily Insiders for an interactive book club gathering on November 17 at 7 p.m. ET. In the weeks leading up to that, Oprah will post discussion questions and observations about the book on the OBC social platforms, and additional content will be published on Oprah Daily. Join the conversation on all things Demon Copperhead @oprahsbookclub on Instagram and Facebook and Oprah Daily. #ReadWithUS
Leigh Haber is Vice President, Books, Oprah Daily and O Quarterly. She is also Director of Oprah's Book Club.
