Delia Owens is an author, zoologist and conservationist. She's written three memoirs reflecting on her zoological studies in Africa, and Where the Crawdads Sing is her only novel. Weirdly enough, the author, her ex-husband and her stepson are all wanted for questioning in relation to the murder of a poacher in Zambia.
Where the Crawdads Sing is, by the way, one of the best selling books of all time. At the time of writing it's sold more than 15 million copies, and in this regard it sits alongside books as different as The Grapes of Wrath and James Clavell's Shogun. It hasn't yet made Fifty Shades of Gray money, but it's not far off.
Where the Crawdads Sing is the story of Kya, a girl abandoned in the swamps of coastal North Carolina. Shunned by those living in the nearest town, Kya grows up in almost total isolation. Nevertheless she still yearns for companionship, and it is this need for companionship that leads her first to Tate, an aspiring biologist, and then to Chase Andrews, who is found dead in the book's first chapter. Is Kya guilty of his murder? Or is someone else to blame? This question of guilt, predicated upon Kya's estrangement from other people, is the focus of a trial which closes out the book.
Overall I liked this novel, though a couple things bothered me. For one thing I thought Kya's mental forays into subjects such as spacetime were a bit much for someone trying to survive in a swamp, and for another thing I felt like her interest in science would have pushed her toward human society much sooner. She clearly has a need to communicate what she knows about the ecosystem she inhabits, so I found it a bit perplexing that she didn't make more of an effort to integrate herself into the outside world. The abuse she suffered at the hands of various people is certainly one reason to avoid human society, but I'm not sure if this fact alone explains her self-imposed isolation.
I watched the movie right after finishing the book, and while I can recommend the book I can't recommend the movie. The movie completely misses the point of the book, and while it covers the same story points the essence of the novel - Kya's sense of isolation and her reasons for avoiding others - is almost completely absent from the movie.
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