This is a brilliant book, a retelling of David Copperfield set in rural southwestern Virginia. Dickens criticized institutional effects of poverty in children in Victorian England and Kingsolver shows us that little has changed in an Appalachian region plagued with poverty, joblessness, hopelessness, and a raging opioid epidemic. Demon is born to an addicted mother living in a trailer and through his narration the reader learns about the child abuse, neglect, child labor, poor schools, overworked social workers, and an inadequate foster system that leads to heartbreak, addiction, destruction, and death in rural America. Demon’s narration is honest and matter of fact, sometimes humorous, often traumatizing to the reader yet with hope due to the good people who reach out to help him despite the tide of terrible events that threaten to undo him.