The new movie, adapted from the mega-popular bestselling novel, has revived an unsolved murder case surrounding author Delia Owens.
Between the massive record sale , packaging for the picture adjustment , and a young song that none other than Taylor Swift write for the motion-picture show , it feels like Delia Owens’Where the Crawdads Singhas been impossible to miss since it was print four eld ago . It ’s trade 12 million copies since come out in 2018 , and justnotched its 167th weekon theNew York Timesbest vender list . Reese Witherspoon , who chose it for her Hello Sunshine Book Club , is also produce the film version go far in theater of operations this Friday . DirectorOlivia Newman told Cinemablendthat Owens was involved in " every step " of production , give note on the script and visiting the lot , and was " super supportive " throughout . That ’s an incredible trajectory for any volume , but particularly for a debut novel from a 70 - year - former wildlife scientist like Delia Owens . And it ’s even more rare for an generator to be connect to a real - liveliness murder mystery from two X before her book became a runaway striking .
WhileCrawdadswas Owens ’ first work of fiction , she had written several whole kit of nonfictional prose includingCry of the KalahariandThe Eye of the Elephant , both with her husband , Mark Owens , centering on meter they spent live and working as conservationists in Botswana and Zambia . It wasEye of the Elephant , about their battles against elephant poachers in Zambia ’s North Luangwa National Park , that contribute them a fresh level of attention and caught the interest of ABC News producer . AsThe New Yorker‘s Jeffrey Goldbergcovered as part of an 18,000 - give-and-take feature in 2010 , an ABC television camera crew travel to Zambia in 1995 to film a section about the Owenses ’ conservation and anti - poaching efforts in the country .
That footage became a 1996Turning Pointspecial calledDeadly plot : The Mark and Delia Owens Story , which document the Owenses ' work protecting wildlife in the area amid come up tensions between plot scout and poachers . Shockingly , the documentary evince the seeming shooting death of a suspect sea poker . ( Yes , you translate that correctly : The cleanup of that “ intruder , ” as he ’s reportedly referred to in the documentary , transmit on interior programme television in the United States . ) The victim and the individual ( or people ) who shoot him were not identified .
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According toThe New Yorker , after the ABC special aired , Zambian authorities launched a homicide investigation . The Owenses left Zambia for the US and have not returned to the commonwealth since .
In a new piece this workweek forThe Atlantic , Goldberg reports that assurance still desire to question Mark , Delia , and her stepson Christopher about the decease of the aver sea poker . The display case has also been stall due to the deficiency of an extradition accord between the US and Zambia , and ABC ’s apparent refusal to cooperate . " There is no statute of limitations on slaying in Zambia , " the res publica ’s head of public prosecutions said . " They are all wanted for questioning in this case , include Delia Owens . " ( Delia has enjoin over the years that she had nothing to do with the case . PerThe Atlantic , lawyer for Mark and Christopher have also issued self-denial of any misconduct or involvement . )
" I was not involved . There was never a face , there was nothing , " shesaid at the time , amid the huge achiever of her novel . " It ’s abominable to have that come up , but it ’s what Kya had to handle with , name telephone . You just have to put your point up or down , or whichever , you have to keep buy the farm and be strong . I ’ve been charged by elephants before . "
Mark and Delia Owens in Zambia in 1990.|William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images
Which brings us back toCrawdads . The romantic thriller — some raider ahead , if you ’re not one of those millions of the great unwashed who ’ve say it — keep an eye on Kya Clark ( played in the film byNormal People ’s Daisy Edgar - Jones ) , a young charwoman basically bequeath to raise herself in the North Carolina marshes in the 1950s and 1960s . Shunned by the masses in town and referred to derisively as the " Marsh Girl , " Kya prefers the party of nature to that of citizenry , and passes time by boating out onto the marshes , collecting wildlife specimens , and drawing pictures of local flora and fauna that she finally gets published in a series of al-Qur’an .
Crawdadstoggles between Kya ’s difficult childhood with her abusive father and her isolated young adulthood , then a murder closed book enters the equivalence . When local man-about-town and former star quarterback Chase Andrews is found utter , Kya is accused of wipe out him , and the novel follows the events of her trial . ( Another , big raider alert : Kya is found not hangdog , but a last plot twist reveals she did indeed kill Chase . )
Owens herselftold Amazon in 2019that " almost every part of this book has a deeper signification . " Others have point to parallels between the novel and the generator ’s life-time story . InThe Atlantic , Goldberg noted that he readWhere the Crawdads Singin 2019 and was " surprised that its themes so plain ring aspects of Delia Owens ’ life-time in Zambia . " That same year , Slate ’s Lauren Miller wrote that the novel contains " spectacular replication " of the Owenses ’ " volatile years in the wilderness . "
Miller goes on : " Both are unfrequented , yet prefer the caller of animals to masses ; the Owenses ’ memoirs tell one long hunt for life-time outside the homo flexure . ' Here ’s where civilisation ends , ' Mark once say admiringly of North Luangwa , Goldberg describe . Kya is draw as a misunderstood dupe , couch out of society by the small - minded bias of her neighbors . In his closing statements , her defense lawyer exhorts the jury and the town itself to examine its conscience : ' We labeled and rejected her because we recall she was unlike . But , lady and gentlemen , did we eject Miss Clark because she was different , or was she different because we excluded her ? ' "
It remains to be seen if the movie will achieve the same level of success the book has enjoyed , despite the controversy . Reviews have been middling , with a Rotten Tomatoes scorecurrently sitting at 38 % , but it has gotten the seal of commendation from Owens herself . When she examine it a few weeks ago , she declared on Instagram that it was " FABULOUS . " Owens did attend the LA premiere of the movie , perplex alongside the mold and crew for photos . But when it came to the film ’s premiere in New York City this week , however , a far cry from Kya ’s Ngaio Marsh and Owens ’ widely - open homesteads , she apparently was not in attendance .
