“Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

During the summer of 2019 I was lucky enough to read one good book after another, and I wondered which might end up being added to our shop’s list of “Books of the Year”. Delia Owen’s won this accolade, if that is the right distinction for one bookseller’s preferred choice.

It is set in 1969 in Berkley Cove in North Carolina; a quiet coastal town where Kya Clark grows up very independently in the local marshland. She has avoided schooling, and when her father vanishes she survives her solitary life being kept company by her friends the gulls. She becomes known as “The Marsh Girl” and is somewhat ostracised by the local towns folk with the exception of Jumpin’ and his wife Mabel, who help her with supplies and moral support.

The storyline moves from 1969 back mainly through the ’60s; but the events that form the structure of the story are based in 1969 when Chase Andrews is found dead. Suspicion leads to Kya, for no evident reason, and it is this that compels the book forward.

This novel, with each chapter helpfully identifying the year of that sections events, is however so much more than the story of the death of a young man. What made this book for me was the continual evocation of nature, the marshlands, the swamps all adding so many dimensions to this story. You can feel the surroundings, and picture the beaches, the wildlife; as the book advances recording Kya’s stoically independent existence, building herself a reputation as a nature artist and naturalist. Her one true friend Tate, and of course her regular trips for supplies.

This is an easy, compelling read, an interesting story supplemented by nature, but the story of the book is about the death of Chase Andrews and how that death affects Kya’s life through to the new century. Something uplifting and a little bit different as we wait for the lighter evenings!