Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother shows how large institutions in the Appalachian region, including the coal industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and even the foster care system, exploit and overpower individual people and their ability to control the trajectory of their own lives. Published in 2022, this novel by Barbara Kingsolver was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and won the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction. Kingsolver was inspired by the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. While Kingsolver's novel is similarly about a boy who experiences poverty, Demon Copperhead is set in Appalachia and explores contemporary issues.