Where the crawdads sing

This is a debut novel by Delia Owens however as a retired wildlife biologist her background enables her to write with exquisite detail of the birdlife, sea life and marshes which are the fabric of this novel set in the Northern Carolina swampland.

The main character is Kya Clark called by the locals ‘Marsh Girl’ and she lives a solitary life but a rich life with the wildlife around her providing the essentials for food and nourishment. We enter her life as a child around 1952 as an abandoned child and follow her story through her relationships with nature and how these relationships translate into human relationships and here Delia’s descriptions of the Carolina swamps are so vivid, enabling the reader to see the dragonflies, egrets, fireflies and the annual flights of birds.

The book starts with a murder, follows as investigation and imprisonment, there are family breakdowns and breakups, it describes a community where different is viewed suspiciously and abuse her naivety, yet conformity has no place in Kya’s story. The story follows the seasons, the seasonal changes, the men in her life and the love that develops for her surroundings and those who live in it with her.

A crawdad is a ‘crayfish’ or “crawfish” which comes from an old French work, escrevisse.

Patron review by: Mo Sheehan

Access this title/place a hold via the Library Catalogue