One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year
ON MORE THAN 25 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR LISTS: including TIME (#1 Nonfiction Book), NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine (10 Favorite Books), Vogue (Top 10), Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle (Top 10), Miami Herald, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top 10), Library Journal (Top 10), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Slate, Shelf Awareness, and Book Riot.
The instant New York Times bestseller and award-winning sensation, Helen Macdonald's story of adopting and raising one of nature's most vicious predators has soared into the hearts of millions of readers worldwide. Fierce and feral, her goshawk Mabel's temperament mirrors Helen's own state of grief after her father's death, and together raptor and human "discover the pain and beauty of being alive" (People). H Is for Hawk is a genre-defying debut from one of our most unique and transcendent voices.
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“One of the loveliest things you’ll read this year... You’ll never see a bird overhead the same way again. A-”
Jason Sheeler, Entertainment Weekly
“Helen Macdonald’s beautiful and nearly feral book, H Is for Hawk, reminds us that excellent nature writing can lay bare some of the intimacies of the wild world as well.”
Dwight Garner, New York Times
“Had there been an award for the best new book that defies every genre, I imagine it would have won that too... ”
Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker
About the Author
Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, illustrator, historian, and naturalist, as well as an affiliated research scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses. She also worked as a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. As a professional falconer, she assisted with the management of raptor research and conservation projects across Eurasia.
Reviews
“This is a superbly crafted memoir, incredibly original in its depth and visceral impact. The author swings back and forth between her own desire to train a goshawk and her research of that same need documented by T.H. White. Self-deprecating humor vies with wonder and grief as Macdonald manages to make the reader see, hear, and feel every aspect of this incredible journey. A marvelous read.”
Karen Frank, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT
“It's a story of grief, of nature and friendship and loneliness, but it's really the story of an encounter with a wild, alien intelligence, one that makes the author feel wild and inhuman herself, but then more human than before. Macdonald has trained many hawks—she's been obsessed with them since she was a girl—but after her father's sudden death, she decides to take on the wildest of their breed, the goshawk. With a wonderfully practical knowledge of the ancient art of falconry and an artful and honest understanding of her own reckless desire, she turns their partnership into a moving and bracingly intelligent book that I'm certain will become a classic.”
Tom Nissley, Phinney Books, Seattle, WA
Related Reading
Interview with Helen Macdonald
The Diane Riame Show
H is for High Praise
The Seattle Stranger
Book of the Month: H Is for Hawk
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