‘Demon Copperhead' Explored Addiction. Its Profits Built a Rehab Center.

New York Times

07-02-2025

When Barbara Kingsolver was writing 'Demon Copperhead,' a novel that explores the devastating effects of the opioid crisis in southern Appalachia, she was doubtful that people would want to read about such a grim subject.
To draw readers in, she knew she would have to ground the narrative in real stories and push against stereotypes about the region. So she traveled to Lee County, Va., a corner of Appalachia that's been battered by drug abuse, and spoke to residents whose lives had been wrecked by opioids.
'I sat down and spent many hours with people talking about their addiction journey,' Kingsolver said. 'There are stories that went straight into the book.'
Published in 2022, the novel was an instant success, in time selling three million copies and winning a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2023. But even before the novel came out, Kingsolver felt indebted to the people who shared their stories.
'I felt like, I am getting a novel from this place, and I'm going to give something back,' she said.
Kingsolver decided to use her royalties from 'Demon Copperhead' to fund a recovery program for people battling addiction. In a social media post this week, Kingsolver announced that she has founded a recovery house for women in Lee County, where the novel is set.
The center, 'Higher Ground Women's Recovery Residence,' will house between eight and 12 women recovering from drug addiction, offering them a place to stay, for a small fee, for up to two years, as well as counseling and other forms of support, like free community college classes.
Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky and lives on a farm in Virginia. As someone raised in the region, she said, she felt she couldn't ignore the opioid epidemic in her fiction. But she struggled for years with how to write about the issue in a way that would make readers pay attention.
While on a book tour in England, Kingsolver stayed in a bed-and-breakfast where Charles Dickens had worked on his novel 'David Copperfield,' and found inspiration in the story and its resilient young narrator.
In 'Demon Copperhead,' which is loosely based on Dickens' novel, Kingsolver tells the story of Damon Fields, a boy who is born to a single teenage mother who struggles with drug addiction. He ends up in foster care and later succumbs to opioid abuse.
As soon as the novel was released, she resolved to find a tangible way to help people whose lives have been upended by addiction.
'The first week that this book hit the stores and was so successful, I said OK, I'm going to bring this home, I'm going to be able to do something concrete with this book that will help the people who told me their stories,' she said. 'I had these royalties that 'Demon' brought me. I took that money and went back to Lee County and said, what can we do with this?'
The biggest need, she learned, was for support for recovering addicts, who often had no housing or job prospects. She and her husband, Steven Hopp, started a nonprofit, 'Higher Ground,' to create a residential home for women, and provided the funds for the nonprofit to purchase the property last summer.
A grand opening is planned for this spring, Kingsolver said, but some residents have already moved in.
Kingsolver said she's been heartened by support the project has received from local organizations, including church groups that have helped get the living space in shape, a local store that donated furniture and a grant from the Lee County Community Foundation.
'You might, in earlier times, have expected stigma, for people not to be open to this, but instead it's been, 'Yes in my backyard,'' Kingsolver said.
'This is the reality of where we live,' she continued. 'Everybody knows someone touched by the opioid epidemic.'