The 10 best books for understanding the opioid crisis

One title from Lit Hub's list of the ten best books for understanding the opioid crisis:

Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead (2022)

Demon Copperhead is Barbara Kingsolver’s retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Instead of the institutional poverty of Victorian England, it is Appalachia, where Kingsolver is from, at the beginning of the opioid epidemic. In fact, she got the idea for the book sitting at the very desk where Dickens wrote much of David Copperfield in England. She thought about how she and Dickens were in the same boat, wanting to tell their own story–though it was a story people might not want to hear. Kingsolver claims that Dickens spoke to her, saying: “Let the kid tell the story. No one doubts the child” (NYT). And so she did. The book tells the story of Demon Copperhead’s life in his own “wise, unwavering voice,” (Pulitzer Prize) Demon’s narration is “one of the great virtuosic vocal performances” (Richard Powers, author of The Overstory). “Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient” (Beth Macy, author of Dopesick).

Read about the other entries on the list.

Demon Copperhead is among Brittany Bunzey's five best books inspired by Charles Dickens's classics.

--Marshal Zeringue