Kingsolver, through the story of one character, shows the way profitable corporations promote their drugs, feeding off the problems of a deprived population. Of course, this is linked to the high opioid addiction rates, which mean many parents have died early. In some counties, 30 to 40% of children are not being raised by their biological parents. In the BBC interview, the author says she was astonished when she researched the data regarding adoption and opioid addiction in that region. His dream in the book is to see the ocean. In the head of Demon this is contrasted sharply with the numbness and concrete ugliness of the city. Kingsolver has lived in the areas where her books are situated, and her training as a biologist and her ecological commitment lead her to be stunningly precise and beautifully vivid about the local natural environment. ‘You’re born with nothing you die with nothing but it’s amazing how much you lose in between’ Then injury strikes and he has to deal with the medication… She shows the solidarity and goodness of what mainstream Americans often call the “hillbillies” or “trailer trash.” Demon finally finds a good placement where he feels better and becomes a successful high school football star. Kingsolver might show us the misery, but it is not misery porn. Foster parents come forward to pick up the social welfare check and/or to make use of cheap child labour.

It is a brutal for-profit system in which social workers can become legal guardians without even knowing the children’s names. In the Appalachian region of Virginia, we live with the terrible inadequacies of the US foster and adoption systems. Born an orphan to a single mother who is an addict, we follow the ups and downs (a lot of downs!) of his life. The novel tells the story of Copperhead from birth until adulthood. Even the names she uses for her characters are a call-out to the ones in David Copperfield. It is narrated like “Copperfield” in the first person by Demon. She also adopted its structure: longish with short chapters, with hooks at the end of each to nudge you into the next chapter.

Inspired by a visit to Bleak House, a house where Dickens lived near Broadstairs, Kent, and had written David Copperfield, she decided to “outsource” her plot and many characters to Dickens’ masterpiece. She follows in the footsteps of writers like Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, Elizabeth Gaskell, John Steinbeck, and Toni Morrison. Unlike many novelists writing today, she tells the lives of working people in an empathetic and political way. She is a feminist, an ecologist, and very critical of big business and the military-industrial complex. Barbara Kingsolver is one of the best living writers of the socially engaged novel.

Unsheltered barbara kingsolver summary