How many books have brought tears* to your eyes because of the beauty of its story? For me, only one: “Where the Crawdads Sing”. Delia Owen’s book first appeared seven years ago and has now sold more than 18 million copies**.
It’s the story of Kya, a young girl who lives alone in the North Carolina marshes. Although she has an ethereal beauty, Kya is an outcast, shunned by “respectable” society. Known as the Marsh Girl, she befriends the gulls who come to her in the swamp for food, particularly Big Red who hops about on her feet. She falls in love with a boy Tate, who also studies the creatures of the waters. They become lovers but Tate leaves to study zoology. Kya meets Chase, a rich boy and celebrity, who beats her and attempts to rape her.
Kya and her boyfriend Tate leave feathers for each other to find Photo: Columbia Pictures’ “Where the Crawdads Sing”.
Kya, who spent only one day at school but was taught to read by Tate, produces gorgeous illustrated books about the birds of the marshes. She travels to Greenville to meet the publisher. On her return she learns Chase has been killed. Kya is arrested and charged with murder. A lengthy court case ensues.
The Carolina wren found in the marshes
An extract that will give you a taste of this extraordinary book. After being in jail for months, Kya returns home to the marshes.
“As Jodie’s (brother) truck bumped off the pavement on to the sandy marsh road, he talked gently to Kya, saying she’d be fine; it would just take some time. She scanned cattails and egrets, pines and ponds flashing past. Craned her neck to watch two beavers paddling. Like a migrating tern who has flown ten thousand miles to her natal shore, her mind pounded with the longing and expectation of home; she barely heard Jodie’s prattle. Wished he’d be quiet and listen to the wilderness within him. Then he might see. Her breath caught as Jodie turned the last bend of the winding lane, and the old shack (Kya’s ramshackle home deep in the marshes) came into view, waiting there beneath the oaks. The Spanish moss tossed gently in the breeze above the rusted roof, and the heron balanced on one leg in the shadows of the lagoon. Kya ran into the shack and grabbed a bag of crumbs from the counter. Finding new energy she ran to the beach with it, tears streaming down her cheeks as the gulls flew towards her from up and down the shore. Big Red landed and tramped around her, his head bobbing.”
Great egret is one of the birds mentioned in the book
If you’re a nature lover, this book will capture your heart.
Delia Owens, author of “Where the Crawdads Sing”, is a zoologist and conservationist. She moved to Africa with her then husband to study animals in the Kalahari Desert. Two memoirs resulted, “Cry of the Kalahari” and “The Eye of the Elephant”. Since returning to the USA she has worked in bear conservation. Delia is perhaps an American Jill Robinson, the admirable founder of Animals Asia.
The setting of the book; the North Carolina marshes – where you’ll find many crawdads, or crayfish
*Two books have brought tears to my eyes twice in each case as beloved characters died: “Don’t Let’s Go To the Dogs tonight” and “When Breath Becomes Air”.
** In Sydney at the time “Where the Crawdads Sing” was first published, I visited Dymocks, the best bookstore I’ve ever seen. They devoted an entire wall to display of Delia’s book. I got my copy, reviewed here, from the Sai Kung public library.
” Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018 ISBN: 9780735219113
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