Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens

Miss Catherine Danielle Clark is Kya to her family and friends and ‘the Marsh Girl’ to the people of the small community near her shack in the marshlands of North Carolina. Her story begins in 1951 and tells of her lonely and neglected childhood, living in poverty and violence, abandoned by her family and ostracised by the community. It periodically leaps forward to 1969, where authorities are investigating the mysterious death of local golden boy Chase Andrews. With a few helping hands Kya raises and educates herself, eventually finding a level of success and security. But the naïve ‘wild child’ remains an outsider and an object of suspicion. Owens skilfully evokes the beauty of the marshes and the joy and sustenance Kya gains from the natural world. Her lyrical and lush descriptions sometimes tip over into florid and overblown and the story conveys a sense of unreality as elements of it require substantial suspension of disbelief. Kya is both alien and sympathetic, her damage, vulnerability and resilience elevating her tale above a kitchen sink drama. The ending is perhaps wrapped up a little too neatly in the far future; the shock twist not really much of a shock.