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Demon Copperhead wins Hay Festival Book of the Year
Demon Copperhead (Faber) by Barbara Kingsolver has been named Hay Festival Book of the Year 2023.
Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2023, the book follows the story of Demon, a young boy born to a teenage mother in Virginia, amid the modern opioid crisis. A reimagining of Dickens’ David Copperfield, the novel — Kingsolver’s ninth book — charts Demon’s journey to adulthood and efforts to transcend the challenges around him.
It has been voted Hay Festival Book of the Year 2023 after hundreds of book lovers nominated their favourite titles of the year online.
The announcement comes on the eve of Hay Festival Winter Weekend, which runs from 23rd to 26th November, in multiple venues across Hay-on-Wye, Wales.
Hay Festival c.e.o. Julie Finch said: “At the end of every year, we ask our Hay Festival audience which books they couldn’t put down. The resulting nominations are a varied and engaging snapshot of the year’s most impactful fiction, non-fiction and poetry. A bestseller at our spring event, Demon Copperhead was shared again and again by readers. We are delighted to celebrate it as our Book of the Year.”
Last year’s winner of the Hay Festival Book of the Year was Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry (Transworld).
Over four days, more than 70 writers and performers take part in over 60 events. Now in its 24th year, events will take place in a new 350-seater marquee in the grounds of Hay Castle, tripling the event’s previous capacity.
