Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “Demon Copperhead,” a riff on “David Copperfield” that moves Charles Dickens’s story to contemporary Appalachia and grapples engagingly with topics from poverty to ambition to opioid addiction, was one of the Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2022. And — unlike an actual copperhead — “Demon Copperhead” has legs: Many readers have told us it was their favorite book in 2023 as well. In this week’s spoiler-filled episode, the Book Review’s MJ Franklin talks with his colleagues Elisabeth Egan (also an editor at the Book Review) and Anna Dubenko, The Times’s newsroom audience director, about Kingsolver’s novel and its enduring appeal. We’d love to hear what you loved (or didn’t) about “Demon Copperhead.” Share those thoughts in the comments and we’ll try to weigh in. I read a pre-publication galley, so when I read it, I didn’t have anyone to discuss it with and that almost killed me.

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Persons: Barbara Kingsolver’s, “ David Copperfield, Charles Dickens’s, MJ Franklin, Elisabeth Egan, Anna Dubenko, we’ll, … Elisabeth Egan, “ Locations: Appalachia