H Is for Hawk (Paperback)
March '15 Indie Next List
“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
Staff Reviews
Just how intimate is the connection between humans and “the wild”? To what degree are we linked? Opposed? Helen McDonald knew her true calling by the age of 8 was hawks and whatever else in her was in her life, she knew she would learn to work and hunt with falcons. But it wasn’t until the death of her beloved co-adventurer in life, her father, that she got the primal call to work with the most prehistorically fierce and huge bird of all, the goshawk. I was utterly rapt, pun intended, and I’m the sort of person who won’t read a book if I think it contains and description of animal cruelty. Rather than the very tired trope of “man against nature”, in H is for Hawk, we have the tale of two complex females--one human and one avian—and their transformational dance of intimacy. As a bonus to the reader, McDonald manages to come to terms with her grief over losing her father and intersperse her own goshawk adventure with T.H. White’s, all in beautifully rendered prose. So good! -Kris' Top 10 Picks of 2015
Just how intimate is the connection between humans and "the wild"? To what degree are we linked? Opposed? Helen McDonald knew her true calling by the age of 8 was hawks and whatever else was in her life, she knew she would learn to work and hunt with falcons. But it wasn't until the death of her beloved co-adventurer in life, her father, that she got the primal call to work with the most prehistorically fierce and huge bird of all, the goshawk. I was utterly rapt, pun intended. Rather than the very tired trope of "man against nature", in H IS FOR HAWK, we have the tale of two complex females--one human and one avian--and their transformational dance of intimacy. As a bonus to the reader, McDonald manages to come to terms with her grief over losing her father and intersperse her own goshawk adventure with T.H. White's, all in beautifuuly rendered prose. So good! - Kris
— From Kris' Reading ListOne of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year
One of Slate's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Last 25 Years
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, Book Riot, Amazon (Top 20)
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.