Born to a teenage single mother in a trailer in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia, red-haired Damon "Demon" Copperhead survives foster care, child labor, addiction, and the collapse of everyone he loves — narrating his own hard-luck rise with grim wit and stubborn hope. A modern retelling of David Copperfield transplanted to the opioid-crisis-era rural South.
Books mentioned in Demon Copperhead (4)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens: Epigraph: "It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present." — Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: “She had cherry-red hair with short, straight bangs, and a full sleeve tattoo representing the book of Moby-Dick.”
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: “That Holden guy held my interest … all he wants in his heart is to stand at the edge of a field catching little boys before they go over the cliff … so I made him the catcher in the tobacco.”
Richard III by William Shakespeare: “His book had a name on it I’d heard of, Shakespeare … And if I die no soul will pity me [lines copied onto the kite; Richard III]”