Set in North Carolina, Where the Crawdads Sing follows two seemingly disparate timelines. The stories of a young girl growing up in the marshland and a murder investigation in a coastal town slowly intertwine as the book progresses.
One of the novel’s standout characteristics is the strong sense of place. Readers feel immersed in the setting, which is so well defined and intrinsic to the story that it could be considered a character all on its own.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was published in 2018. Ever since it hit the shelves it’s had a long library wait list. While you’re waiting for a copy of Where the Crawdads Sing, or if you’re looking for something similar, try out these other titles with a strong sense of place.
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The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne
A woman whose birth occurred as a result of her teen mother’s abduction and imprisonment in an isolated marshland cabin risks the adult family that does not know her past when she uses survival skills honed in childhood to track down her murderous father.
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Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
A tale told from multiple perspectives traces the complicated relationship between Ann and Wade on a rugged landscape and how they came together in the aftermath of his first wife’s imprisonment for a violent murder.
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Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
The Bigtree children struggle to protect their Florida Everglades alligator-wrestling theme park from a sophisticated competitor after losing their parents. Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, the author has written a novel about a family’s struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking.
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There There by Tommy Orange
This is a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. It grapples with the complex history of Native Americans as it follows 12 characters, each of whom has private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.
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Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
A story of how the past affects the present, and of deeply entrenched racism, Sing Unburied Sing describes the life of a biracial boy, his addicted, grieving black mother, and his incarcerated white father. A road trip to Dad’s prison kick-starts the novel, which offers deeply affecting characters, a rural Mississippi setting, and a touch of magical realism in appearances by the dead.
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My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
Enduring an isolated existence after the death of her mother, 14-year-old Turtle roams the rocky shores and tide pools of the California coast and refutes every outside attempt to engage her until an unexpected friendship with a newcomer helps her realize the vulnerabilities of her life with her charismatic father. What follows is a harrowing story of bravery and redemption.
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The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow and her spinster daughter are obliged to take in lodgers.
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The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Arriving in New Zealand in 1866 to seek his fortune in the goldfields, Walter Moody finds himself drawn into a series of unsolved crimes and complex mysteries.
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Tangerine by Christine Mangan
Arriving in Tangier with her new husband only to encounter the estranged best friend she has not seen in more than a year, Alice allows her friend to introduce her to the rhythms and culture of Morocco, only to be quickly stifled by the woman’s controlling nature, a situation that turns sinister when her husband goes missing.
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The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A childless couple working a farm in the brutal landscape of 1920 Alaska discover a little girl living in the wilderness, with a red fox as a companion, and begin to love the strange, almost-supernatural child as their own.
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The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
When novelist Carrie McClelland decides to set her new novel in Slains Castle in Scotland and uses her ancestor, Sophia Paterson, as one of the characters, the novel begins to take on a life of its own and Carrie soon realizes that an unusual bond with her ancestor may be providing her with an immediate window into the past.
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