In 2023, which novel shared the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Demon Copperhead? The answer is Trust, by Hernan Diaz. The Pulitzer awarded both novels the 2023 Fiction prize, making them co-winners rather than one winner and one runner-up.
Trust is a literary puzzle set against the world of early twentieth-century American finance. Its structure presents several versions of a powerful financier, his wife and their wealth, gradually forcing readers to question whose account is reliable. The novel examines capitalism, class, marriage, authorship and the ability of money to shape public narratives.
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver, is loosely inspired by Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield and follows a boy growing up in Appalachia amid poverty, addiction and the opioid crisis. Readers sometimes remember it as the sole 2023 winner because it received especially prominent coverage, but the official Pulitzer result listed Trust and Demon Copperhead as co-winners. The Netanyahus was a finalist, not the winner.