Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
Penguin Random House
Kya Clark lives with her family in a swampy marsh near a small coastal town in North Carolina. Her father is a deadbeat dad, unemployed, angry, alcoholic and quick with his fists. One by one her siblings make their escape from their dirtpoor life. But when her beloved mother packs her bags and walks away without once turning back, Kya knows the true meaning of loneliness and abandonment. She and her father muddle along together and he teaches her how to fish and use the boat in the swamp. When her father doesn’t return from one of his jaunts she knows the townsfolk will come looking for her to make sure she is educated and put in a home. The marsh and the seabirds become her family and she teaches herself how to survive by watching nature. She’s befriended by Tate, a school friend of her brother who teaches her to read and write, and with this knowledge the world is truly opened to her.
Interwoven in this beautiful story we have a mystery, legal drama, coming of age and a love story. An absolutely beautiful book.