Sales of Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead have been positively affected after winning the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction, according to reports.
After the win, Faber reportedly reprinted 55,000 copies of the book.
In fact, the book has been reprinted five times since May and twice since Kingsolver’s Women’s Prize win.
The week after the announcement, sales of the book jumped 109% in volume, to 9,629 copies. The book has also sold 19,433 copies in hardback.
The sales increase is a significant boost for the book, which is Kingsolver’s 10th novel and a modern reimagining of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, set in the modern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia.
This is Kingsolver’s second time winning the prize, having previously won in 2010 for The Lacuna.
Demon Copperhead tells the story of a boy born in a trailer park who navigates foster care, labour exploitation, addiction, love and loss. The judges called it “a towering, deeply powerful and significant book”.
Kingsolver explained that it was “challenging and also fun to transpose Victorian characters and situations to my own place and time” for her 10th novel.
Here are some other books that have won the Women’s Prize for Fiction:
The Power by Naomi Alderman (2017), Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (2018), A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (2014), and Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (2002)
