Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (2022) Harper (Pulitzer 2023)

David Copperfield in the Appalachians.  The story even starts with a similar line; “First, I got myself born.”  Only here we are in the current century with the current problems that have affected our society.  Our hero, the title character, lives with his drug addicted mother, until the government decides it would be in his best interest to live in foster care, meaning people who are only interested in the monthly check from the government and the free labor that comes with it.  Things go from bad to worse until he hits the jackpot with the local hero football coach.  But fate won’t by stopped by the cornucopia of temptations and tragedies of the twenty-first century.  And all Demon wants to do is see the ocean.