WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING BY DELIA OWENS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FENDER
Reviewed by Gayle Oberst
The story begins with six-year-old Kya watching her mother walk away carrying a worn suitcase stuffed with all her possessions. Kya is standing on the porch of a cabin deep in the marsh along the North Carolina coast, “where the crawdads sing.” Known as the marsh girl, Kya is left with her drunken father and soon even he leaves her. Now she is alone, living only with birds, animals, and the marsh, and she becomes one with them. In this 2018 novel Delia Owens draws on her experience as a wildlife scientist to describe the marsh so vividly that the reader has the sense of being there.
Kya knows she has to take care of herself, and while the marsh sustains her, can she survive? She gathers mussels, oysters, and fish and brings them to sell and trade for food and gasoline at Jumpin’s Gas and Bait, a small shack in the backwater. Jumpin and his wife are her first human friends.
Two boys, Tate and Chase, enter Kya’s life as she grows up. Tate fishes the waters, teaches Kya to read, and tells her of a world outside of the marsh. Like her family, Tate leaves her. Chase becomes her friend and lover, promising a life she can never have. Kya can’t leave the marsh and he can’t stay.
As the story unfolds, the author effortlessly moves through the years from Kya’s birth to the discovery of a dead body on the edge of the marsh some 20 years later. An unexplained death in the middle of the wonders of nature leads the sheriff and the community to struggle with the question of murder versus accident. Readers often know, or think they know, the ending of a novel long before getting to the last page. Not true with “Where the Crawdads Sing.” I was completely surprised by its amazing ending. The book is an easy read, yet difficult to put down. I enjoyed it so much that I read it twice, just to savor its eloquence and surprise ending.