Review: Cry of the Kalahari

Title: Cry of the Kalahari

Author: Mark and Delia Owens

Publisher: 12th October 2021 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 434 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: non fiction, animals, adventure, culture Africa

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

The incredible memoir by international bestselling author of ‘Where The Crawdad's Sing’, Delia Owens and her partner Mark Owens', charting their time researching wildlife in the Kalahari Desert. Reissued and in full colour, for the first time since its original publication.

Carrying little more than a change of clothes and a pair of binoculars, two young Americans, Mark and Delia Owens, caught a plane to Africa, bought a thirdhand Land Rover, and drove deep into the Kalahari Desert. There they lived for seven years, in an unexplored area with no roads, no people, and no source of water for thousands of square miles. In this vast wilderness the Owenses began their zoology research, working along animals that had never before been exposed to humans.

An international bestseller on original release, Cry of the Kalahari is the story of the Owenses's life with lions, brown hyenas, jackals, giraffes, and the many other creatures they came to know. It is also a gripping account of how they survived the dangers of living in one of the last and largest pristine areas on Earth.

My Thoughts

‘The sky deepened. I lay back in the straw-colored grass, and pressing my fingers into the rough surface of the riverbed, as I had so many times before, I wondered how long the Kalahari would belong to the wild.’

Having lived and worked in Africa, I am always eager to read stories from that conflicted continent. ‘Cry of the Kalahari’, originally published in 1984, is being reissued with full colour photos for the first time and I highly recommend it. It was a wake up call almost forty years ago and, sadly, would appear to remain seemingly relevant today. 

Mark and Delia Owens devoted much of their life to conservation. This book details their first seven years of studying the Botswana wildlife, particularly lions and brown hyenas. Here you will read about what would have been the adventure of a lifetime, especially given the situation in the early 80s, namely the lack of communication. The hardships they endured on a daily basis seem so unreal but this is very much a factual account. To balance it out however, they bring such joy to what they did and through the sharing of their immersive lifestyle of living  in such remoteness, we can learn and feel so much. 

‘We had to remind ourselves that they were wild lions. What we felt at such times could not be expressed with any one of the usual emotional terms. It was an amalgam, really, of several emotions: excitement, gratitude, warmth, companionship.’

It would be remiss of me not to draw attention to the proverbial elephant in this review - Delia Owens of Where The Crawdads Sing fame. Having read that novel, having read this current book and having been inspired to read more about the work of Delia and Mark Owens, I have to admit to being intrigued by the seeming correlations of Delia’s experiences adapted to her fictional sensation of Where The Crawdads Sing. Fascinating to consider. 

This is truly an inspiring read of a young couple dedicating seven years of their life to studying the wildlife of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. Tenacious, brave and seemingly fearless, they pushed on through many hardships in an effort to understand and preserve a very special part of our world. A must read for anyone interested in wildlife and conservation.

‘It’s difficult to describe the excitement and joy we felt. We had found our Eden. Yet we were very anxious not to disturb the intricate patterns of life that were going on around us. Here was a place where creatures did not know of man’s crimes against nature. Perhaps, if we were sensitive enough to the freedom of these animals, we could slip unnoticed into this ancient river valley and carefully study its treasures without damaging it. We were determined to protect one of the last untouched corners of earth from ourselves.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Where the Crawdads Sing

Title: Where the Crawdads Sing

Author: Delia Owens

Publisher: 12th December 2018 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 370 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, mystery, coming of age

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.

But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures. 

My Thoughts

I was a little concerned coming late to ‘the party’ when it came to reading Crawdads. When a book gets such rave reviews from all quarters, my expectations are often left unfulfilled. Not on this occasion. Whilst there is nothing sensational and attention grabbing about the book as a whole, it captures more an unspoken power, a slow burn that builds connections and wraps itself around you leaving you lost in thought.

“Well, we better hide way out there where the crawdads sing ... “What dya mean, where the crawdads sing? Ma used to say that." Kya remembered Ma always encouraging her to explore the marsh: “Go as far as you can - way out yonder where the crawdads sing."  “Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”            

This is truly a heart wrenching tale that I defy anyone not to feel for the main character Kya. Without going into details, this is a cleverly written dual time narrative - one in 1969 with a murder and consequent trial and the other starting in 1952 until it finally merges with the 1969 timeline. Than in itself is clever writing. From 1952 when first Kya’s mother, then siblings, then father walked out and abandoned her, Kya is left all alone and must adapt and survive from the age of like seven! Truly unthinkable! Yes, she may be the ‘Marsh Girl’ but what other human being, regardless of where they came from, would not lend assistance? Only a kind coloured couple care and that is difficult as, remember, this is the 1950s in America. Kya struggles understandably - physically, socially, emotionally ... you name it. Then whenever help is offered, is it genuine? Are the relationship understandings reciprocated or will be Kya abandoned all over again? 

“Please don’t talk to me about isolation. No one has to tell me how it changes a person. I have lived it. I am isolation.”

Interwoven throughout this struggle for survival is some of the most beautifully written prose of North Carolina marshes, wildlife and small town living. Intersperse a murder trial throughout and you begin to understand the fanfare behind this book. It is well done in all aspects. Do yourself a favour and read this book. It is beautifully written, thoughtful, emotive and will sit with you long after the final page is turned. 

“Tate, I appreciate your teaching me to read and all those things you gave me. But why’d you         

do it? Don't you have a girlfriend or somebody like that?” “Nah ... I like being out here in the quiet and I like the way you’re so interested in the marsh, Kya. Most people don't pay it any attention except to fish. They think it's wasteland that should be drained and developed. People don't understand ...”

                                    

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.