He promises to return, yet later realizes Kya cannot live in his more civilized world because of how wild and independent she is, and leaves her without saying goodbye.ĭelia Owens's novel is set in a North Carolina marsh like the one illustrated above. The two form a romantic relationship until Tate leaves for college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Years later, he leaves her feathers from rare birds, then teaches her how to read and write. When Kya loses her bearings one day, Tate leads her home in his boat.

However, she becomes friendly with Tate Walker, an old friend of Jodie's who sometimes fishes in the marsh. She is laughed at by the schoolchildren the only day she goes to school and is called 'nasty' and 'filthy' by the pastor's wife. Jumpin' and his wife Mabel become lifelong friends to Kya, and Mabel collects donated clothing for her.Īs Kya grows up, she faces prejudice from the townspeople of Barkley Cove, North Carolina, who nickname her 'The Marsh Girl'. Without money and family, she survives by gardening and trading fresh mussels and smoked fish for money and gas from Jumpin', a black man who owns a gasoline station at the boat dock. Eventually he does not return at all and Kya assumes he is dead, making him the last of the family to leave her alone in the marsh. He returns to drinking and takes long, frequent trips away to gamble. He snatches the letter from her hands and after reading it becomes infuriated he burns the letter along with most of her mother's wardrobe and canvases. One day Kya finds a letter in the mailbox and runs to her father, squealing with delight that they finally received a letter from her mother. The illiterate Kya paints these shells and feathers, as well as the marsh's creatures and shorelines, with watercolors her mother left behind. Her father gives her his knapsack to hold her collections of shells and feathers. While Kya waits in vain for her mother's return, she witnesses her older siblings, Missy, Murph, Mandy, and Jodie, all leave as well, due to their father's drinking and physical abuse.Īlone with her father-who temporarily stops drinking-Kya learns to fish. In 1952, six-year-old Catherine Danielle Clark (nicknamed 'Kya') watches her mother abandon her and her family due to violent abuse from her husband, Kya's father.

A film adaptation was released in July 2022. īy April 2023, the book had sold over 18 million copies. The second timeline follows an investigation into the apparent murder of Chase Andrews, a local celebrity of Barkley Cove, in a fictional coastal town of North Carolina. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya as she grows up isolated in the marshes of North Carolina. The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2018 coming-of-age murder mystery novel by American zoologist Delia Owens.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens