Novelist Barbara Kingsolver was born and continues to live in Appalachia, a region she is devoted to and knows deeply.Mike Belleme/The New York Times News Service
Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield,” is Oprah Winfrey’s new book club choice.
In a statement Tuesday, the release date for “Demon Copperhead,” Winfrey called Kingsolver’s 560-page novel “the kind of epic you want to read this fall.” The book is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia and follows the life of a boy, born to a single, teenage mother, as he endures everything from foster care to drug addiction.
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Kingsolver, 67, has lived for years on a farm in southern Appalachia, and has long blended narrative drama and social commentary. Her past novels include “The Bean Trees,” “Flight Behavior” and “The Poisonwood Bible,” a Winfrey selection in 2000. Her honors include a National Humanities Medal and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
“Getting that call from Oprah is the highest literary prize on the planet, if you ask me,” Kingsolver said in a statement. “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.”
Winfrey will host an interactive gathering with Kingsolver and Oprah Daily Insiders on Nov. 17.