Where the Crawdads Sing

In the marshes of coastal North Carolina, Catherine "Kya" Clark grows up almost entirely alone. Abandoned first by her mother and siblings and then by her violent father, she raises herself in a shack among the reeds, learning the tides, birds, and creatures of the marsh better than any schoolroom could teach her. To the people of the nearby town of Barkley Cove she is only the "Marsh Girl," an object of gossip and suspicion.

The novel moves between two timelines. One follows Kya's isolated childhood and her tentative attempts to connect with two young men who notice her, Tate Walker and Chase Andrews. The other opens in 1969 with the discovery of Chase's body beneath a fire tower and the murder investigation that draws the town's attention back to the woman at the edge of the water.

Delia Owens, a wildlife scientist, folds close observation of the natural world into a coming-of-age story, a courtroom mystery, and a meditation on loneliness and belonging. Where the Crawdads Sing became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, spending years on bestseller lists and inspiring a feature film.