Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens

Life decays and reeks and returns to the rotted duff; a poignant wallow of death begetting life.

Until at last, at some unclaimed moment, the heart-pain seeped away like water into sand. Still there, but deep. Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother.

Sand keeps secrets better than mud.

Within all the worlds of biology, she searched for an explanation of why a mother would leave her offspring.

She knew this was not a dark side to Nature, just inventive ways to endure against all odds.