#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING PHENOMENONMore than 6 million copies soldA Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club PickA Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade “I can’t even express how much I love this book! I didn’t want this story to end!”–Reese Witherspoon“Painfully beautiful.”–The New York Times Book ReviewFor years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet … years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
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Best book ever.
Love this book. Perfect summer reading. It will touch your soul, heighten your understanding of nature and imerse you into a love story.
Easy summer read but couldn’t put it down. Always curious to find out what happens next. Natural history overview also a plus.
Delia Owens has written such a heartwrenching story. Kya is an extraordinary character and her connection to the natural world stir the deepest part of one’s soul. This book has been reviewed countless times for good reason– it is amazing.
All I can say is “Great Book” , loved it !!!!
A really great read. If you love nature with a little romance thrown in this book is for you.
Beautiful intro to Southern coastal life. Beautifully crafted and surprising
One of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. It was hard to put it down.
This is worth your time. Loved this book
Great read! Couldn’t put it down. Interesting characters and subject matters.
Loved loved loved this story. So horrible to contemplate the reality of this young girl. But a remarkable tale or survival and yes love too! Go glad I picked it up!
What a wonderful book it is a mystery book a romance a science book and much much more
There is a little for everyone
A good overall fun read, even though there are a few head-scratching holes in the telling, ie some implausibility of some situations.
Where the Crawdad Sings is hauntingly enchanting. I did not want to put down the book. It kept me hopeful from one plot twist to the next. Definitely a great summer read.
It is the unique ecosystem of the marshes- the seemingly fragile but enduring wetlands that protect the mid-Atlantic and southern east coast- that emerge, in this book as a fully realized character shaping the story as the true protagonist of this haunting tale.
With “Where the crawdads sing”, Delia Owens did not write a novel in North Carolina; it created a wonder over North Carolina! She has brought together in a single book a novel that talks about youth, nature, which is a character in its own right. It is also a love story, a survival tale, a book full of mysteries in which there is also a question of murder; an audience drama, all in the coastal marsh of North Carolina.
There, where the ships collapse “like paper hats”, a violent man, damaged by the Second World War, takes his family to a dilapidated cabin. One by one, each family member escapes, leaving the youngest child, little Kya, alone with him. She survives. When Kya is only 10 years old, her father also disappears, leaving her “where the crayfish sing”: “… far in the bush where people are wild, always behaving like critters.” Avoiding the authorities ” like a minnow “, she learns wonderful things and concrete knowledge that she would never have learned at school -” The swamp has become her mother “.
It is in this world that she meets Tate, a boy from the village who becomes a sincere friend. It provides her with a company she has never known and the ability to learn to read. During all the time they spend together, she learns to write the words of each animal, each plant that she loves to represent through wonderful paintings.
Unfortunately Tate also leaves her when he goes to university and it is in the love she has for the local fauna, her friends the seagulls with whom she likes to share her meager meals and a couple of afro- Americans who love her as their daughter whom she finds comfort. She develops a love for poetry through which she manifests her solitude. Quotes from Emily Dickinson, Galway Kinnell and a woman named Amanda Hamilton punctuate the text. “I did not know that a sentence could be so complete,” she gasped when she read a poem for the first time. The same can be said of the author’s writing. She fills the pages with lyrical phrases.
In the middle of the book is a murder that colors the story. A drama in the courtroom develops with exceptional tension: the people of the village have already condemned “the savage”! Read this book if you get the chance! There’s so much poetry … and this nature, we live, we feel these essential marshes that connect the sea to this land made of trees, mud and sand. I don’t know what to say, what to write more to convince you to try to read this masterpiece, the first novel by Delia Owens, this poet who until recently ignored herself. A biologist as well as her husband, Mark Owens with whom she writes books which tell marvelously the stories of their numerous travels around the world.
One of the best books from the 21th century (IMHO!).
A must for this who love the south and all its characters.
Enjoyed the story and the characters, but I never saw the end coming. It caught me completely off guard. Highly recommended.
Absolutely loved it. I avoided reading it for a while because the preview didn’t grab me. So glad I gave in and read it based on so many good reviews. Cant remember a book I have enjoyed so much.
best. book. ever.