Where the Crawdads Sing

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 popular 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 real ways
of the world from the dishonest 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, who are 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 deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are
forever shaped by the child 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.