The book is set in far western Virginia in Lee County and charts the adolescence and growing up of the main character Damon Fields, whose nickname is Demon Copperhead because of his fiery red hair. He is the son of a mother with drug addiction and a father who passed away prior to Demon's birth. The book is modeled after David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and very soon this does turn into a book about an orphan's odyssey through the world.
The book was heartbreaking at times - mainly because the author helped one to understand that there are countless Demons out there whose lives have been ravaged by our economic policies, lack of medical care, the opioid industries that preyed on them, and the lack of focus or understanding by the rest of America on the Appalachian region in which the story takes place.
There are so many truths this story revealed, but most of all it reminded me that the main difference between Demon and the rest of us is the multiple safety nets - familial, financial, and structural - that we have to fall back on and that poor kids like Demon do not have. The novel made a strong case for addressing the root causes of the disparities that exist in our country by investing in social services, schools, addiction recovery, and medical care in rural communities. However, the greatest lesson the novel taught me is that children are our greatest asset as a nation. Failure to invest in a child not only dooms that child to so many poor outcomes; it also dooms the generations that follow from the child once he/she grows up.
After you are done - and I recommend you read this book right away - I highly recommend this podcast episode with the author. She grew up in Appalachia, and she moved back there after many years away in recent years. Her novel made me want to know her other works better and to know the people of that region better, too.
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