“Go as far as you can—way out yonder where the Crawdads sing…in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”

Catherine Danielle Clark—“Kya”—the Marsh Girl—was 6 years old, when her mother walked out of the shack in the marsh, leaving her five children and abusive husband to fend for themselves. Slowly, each of the siblings walked away, leaving 6 year old Kya alone with her father. The shack had no plumbing and was crumbling around them. Papa survived on a military disability and rarely spoke to Kya.

For almost 4 years Kya and her father survive together. Periodically, Kya goes into town to buy supplies, where she is treated poorly by most in town and described as trash. Truant officers show up at the shack and send her off to school. Kya attends for one day, but the other students are cruel and she never returns.

Four years after her mother left, sometime in 1956, Kya’s father receives a letter from her which sends him into a rage. He too disappears, leaving 10 year old Kya to fend for herself. Kya befriends a black man and his wife, Jumpin’ and Mabel. Jumpin owns a gas outlet for boats and a sundries store and he and Mabel provide Kya with clothes and sundries in exchange for mussels and smoked fish. The relationship, which is unique in the 1950s south, stays strong throughout the story.

Kya meets a town boy, Tate and a friendship and ultimate romance begins. Tate teaches Kya to read and provides her with art supplies and various other gifts. But Tate leaves for college and does not stay in touch. In the meantime, the handsome Chase Andrews, known as a womanizer, establishes a romantic relationship with Kya, leads her to believe they will marry and then marries someone else. He wants to continue a relationship with Kya, however, and becomes abusive.

In 1969, two boys find a man dead in the swamp who turns out to be Chase Andrews. There are no footprints or fingerprints and it is not clear whether he has fallen from a tower or been pushed. By this time, Kya has become a successful writer about various aspects of vegetation and animals in the marsh, and despite having been out of town when the death occurs, she is arrested and tried for first degree murder.

The story goes back and forth between Kya growing up and the murder investigation and ends with the trial and the future. There is something a bit too familiar, perhaps formulaic and predictable about the story and at times portions of the descriptive prose feel forced. That said, it is an enjoyable read and highlights the problems with our tendencies to jump to discriminatory judgments about people when in fact people’s behaviors and emotions are not at all predictable. You can reserve the novel at the Cuyahoga County Public Library by clicking here.