For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild, unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the famous Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the natural ways of the world from the false signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming-of-age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and profoundly moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that the child forever shapes us within us while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman who, like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.
