DEMON COPPERHEAD BY BARBARA KINGSOLVE WINS 2023 PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION

Distributed in India by Penguin, it is also shortlisted for the Women’s Prize 2023

New Delhi, May 2023: Penguin Random House India is proud to announce that our locally distributed title Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver has won the Pultizer Prize in Fiction earlier today. Reimagining Dickens’ David Copperfield for the modern age, the bestselling author of The Poisonwood Bible spins an utterly immersive bildungsroman rich in characterisation and grand narrative set pieces. The book is published by Faber and Faber and distributed in Indian subcontinent by Penguin.

The book follows the story of Demon which begins at his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking ‘like a little blue prizefighter.’ For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.

In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn’t an idea, it’s as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn’t an abstraction, it’s neighbours, parents, and friends. ‘Family’ could mean love, or reluctant foster care. For Demon, born on the wrong side of luck, the affection and safety he craves is as remote as the ocean he dreams of seeing one day. The wonder is in how far he’s willing to travel to try and get there.

Suffused with truth, anger and compassion, Demon Copperhead is an epic tale of love, loss and everything in between.

Praise for the Book

‘Legit about to get an ‘I’d rather be reading Demon Copperhead’ sticker for my Nissan Murano.’
– ROB DELANEY

‘Extraordinary.’
– OPRAH

‘She means to save us by telling us stories. . . She comes closer than anyone else I know.’
– ANN PATCHETT

‘Electrifying. . . Every sentence here sizzles.’
– Daily Mail

‘It’s EPIC. Righteously angry, DEEPLY moving and exquisitely written.’
– MARIAN KEYES

‘A powerful tale.’
– Good Housekeeping

About the author

An ecologist and biologist by training, Barbara Kingsolver shifted into fiction in 1988 and within a decade produced the masterful The Poisonwood Bible, a novel echoing her own year-long experience of living in the Congo. Winner of many awards, her subsequent books have often charted our own relationships with our environment, particularly the stunning Flight Behaviour of 2012, a story describing the subtle but real impact of climate change in rural Tennessee.