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H Is for Hawk Paperback – March 8, 2016

4.0 out of 5 stars 7,057

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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, 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.


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From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for H Is for Hawk:

* Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
* Shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction
* Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Award in Nonfiction
* The Costa Book of the Year
* Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize


"Breathtaking . . . Helen Macdonald renders an indelible impression of a raptor’s fierce essence—and her own—with words that mimic feathers, so impossibly pretty we don’t notice their astonishing engineering." —
Vicki Constantine Croke, New York Times Book Review (cover review)

"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. Her book is so good that, at times, it hurt me to read it. It draws blood, in ways that seem curative. . . . [An] instant classic." —Dwight Garner, New York Times

"Extraordinary . . . indelible . . . [it contains] one of the most memorable passages I’ve read this year, or for that matter this decade . . . Mabel is described so vividly she becomes almost physically present on the page." —
Lev Grossman, TIME

"Captivating and beautifully written, it’s a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive." —
People (Book of the Week)

"One of the loveliest things you’ll read this year . . . You’ll never see a bird overhead the same way again." —
Jason Sheeler, Entertainment Weekly

"[A] singular book that combines memoir and landscape, history and falconry . . . it is not like anything I've ever read . . . what Macdonald tells us so eloquently in her fine memoir [is] that transformation of our docile or resigned lives can be had if we only look up into the world." —
Susan Straight, Los Angeles Times

"Had there been an award for the best new book that defies every genre, I imagine it would have won that too. . . . Coherent, complete, and riveting, perhaps the finest nonfiction I read in the past year." —
Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker

"The art of Macdonald’s book is in the way that she weaves together various kinds of falling apart—the way she loops one unraveling thread of meaning into another. . . . What’s lovely about [it] is the clarity with which she sees both the inner and outer worlds that she lives in." —
Caleb Crain, New York Review of Books

"One of the most riveting encounters between a human being and an animal ever written." —
Simon Worrall, National Geographic

"Assured, honest and raw . . . a soaring wonder of a book." —
Daneet Steffens, Boston Globe

"An elegantly written amalgam of nature writing, personal memoir, literary portrait and an examination of bereavement. . . . It illuminates unexpected things in unexpected ways." —
Guy Gavriel Kay, Washington Post

"To categorize this work as merely memoir, nature writing or spiritual writing would understate [Macdonald’s] achievement . . . her prose glows and burns." —
Karin Altenberg, Wall Street Journal

"Dazzling." —
Kate Guadagnino, Vogue

"Unsparing, fierce . . . a superior accomplishment. There’s not a line here that rings false; every insight is hard won . . . Macdonald has found the ideal balance between art and truth." —
David Laskin, Seattle Times

"One of the best books about nature that I've ever read. Macdonald's wonderful gift for language and her keen observations bring pleasure to every page." —
Karen Sandstrom, Cleveland Plain Dealer

"[With] sumptuously poetic prose . . . there is deft interplay between agony and ecstasy, elegy and rebirth, wildness and domesticity, alongside subtle reminders about the cruelty of nature and our necessary faith in humanity." —
Malcolm Forbes, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"One of a kind . . . Macdonald is a poet, her language rich and taut. . . . As she descends into a wild, nearly mad connection with her hawk, her words keep powerful track. . . . [She] brings her observer's eye and poet's voice to the universal experience of sorrow and loss." —
Barbara Brotman, Chicago Tribune

"A heart-poundingly good read." —
Helen W. Mallon, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Incandescent . . . glorious, passionate, and heartbreaking." —
Sy Montgomery, Orion

"A triumph." —
Nick Willoughby, Salon

"The hawk-book's form is perfect. It prickles your skin the way nature can when you are surprised by an animal in your path. Some books are not books but visitations, and this one has crossed its share of thresholds before arriving here, to an impossible middle perch between wilderness and culture, past and present, life and death." —
Katy Waldman, Slate

"A genre-busting dazzler of a book, worthy of the near-universal accolades that it's received so far." —
Elisabeth Donnelly, Flavorwire

"Extraordinary . . . Macdonald elegantly weaves multitudinous and extremely complex issues into a single work of seamless prose." —
Lucy Scholes, The Daily Beast

"The echoes of myth in Macdonald’s writing, however subtle and unobtrusive, lend her book an emotional weight usually reserved only for literature, and a grace only for poetry. But this is one of the book’s great achievements: to belong to several genres at once, and to succeed at all of them." —
Madeleine Larue, The Millions

"[Macdonald’s] writing—about soil and weather, myth and history, pain and its slow easing—retains the qualities of [her hawk] Mabel's wild heart, and the commanding scope and piercing accuracy of her hawk's eye." —
Joanna Scutts, Newsday

"Brutal yet redemptive . . . a real stunner." —
Alexis Burling, The Oregonian

"Gorgeous." —
Diane Rehm, The Diane Rehm Show

"A wonder both of nature and of meditative writing." —
Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air with Terry Gross

"To read Helen Macdonald's new memoir is to have every cell of your body awake and alive." —
Robin Young, Here and Now

"In this profoundly inquiring and wholly enrapturing memoir, Macdonald exquisitely and unforgettably entwines misery and astonishment, elegy and natural history, human and hawk." —
Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

"An inspired, beautiful and absorbing account of a woman battling grief—with a goshawk. . . . Writing with breathless urgency . . . Macdonald broadens her scope well beyond herself to focus on the antagonism between people and the environment. Whether you call this a personal story or nature writing, it's poignant, thoughtful and moving—and likely to become a classic in either genre." —
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A unique and beautiful book with a searing emotional honesty, and descriptive language that is unparalleled in modern literature." —
Costa Book Award citation

"
H is for Hawk is a work of great spirit and wonder, illuminated equally by terror and desire. Each beautiful sentence is capable of taking a reader’s breath. The book is built of feather and bone, intelligence and blood, and a vulnerability so profound as to conjure that vulnerability’s shadow, which is the great power of honesty. It is not just a definitive work on falconry; it is a definitive work on humanity, and all that can and cannot be possessed." —Rick Bass

"A lovely touching book about a young woman grieving over the death of her father becoming rejuvenated by training one of the roughest, most difficult creatures in the heavens, the goshawk." —
Jim Harrison

"It just sings. I couldn't stop reading."
—Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

"In addition to being an excellent memoir of loss and grief,
H is for Hawk is a wonderful exploration of how birds of prey can function as metaphor to produce art and a roadmap for human lives. Read it and enrich your life." —Dan O’Brien

"Rich with the poetry of ideation, the narrative flows through the author’s deeply textured story of personal loss like a mountain wind, swirling seamlessly through fields of literature, biology, natural history, and the art of hunting with hawks. Readers might do well to absorb this book a bite at a time—but be prepared for a full meal." —
Lynn Schooler

"A beautiful book on so many levels. Macdonald fearlessly probes each facet of grief and traverses its wilderness to reach redemption. But most beautiful of all is the complex, layered bond that builds between her and Mabel, her hawk. Who would have guessed that human and bird could share so much?" —
Jan DeBlieu

"In this elegant synthesis of memoir and literary sleuthing . . . Macdonald describes in beautiful, thoughtful prose how she comes to terms with death in new and startling ways." —
Publishers Weekly

"A dazzling piece of work: deeply affecting, utterly fascinating and blazing with love . . . a deeply human work shot through, like cloth of gold, with intelligence and compassion—an exemplar of the mysterious alchemy by which suffering can be transmuted into beauty. I will be surprised if a better book than
H is for Hawk is published this year." —Melissa Harrison, Financial Times

"More than any other writer I know, including her beloved [T.H.] White, Macdonald is able to summon the mental world of a bird of prey . . . she extends the boundaries of nature writing. As a naturalist she has somehow acquired her bird's laser-like visual acuity. As a writer she combines a lexicographer's pleasure in words as carefully curated objects with an inventive passion for new words or for ways of releasing fresh effects from the old stock. . . . Macdonald looks set to revive the genre." —
Mark Cocker, Guardian

"A talon-sharp memoir that will thrill and chill you to the bone . . . Macdonald has just the right blend of the scientist and the poet, of observing on the one hand and feeling on the other." —
Craig Brown, Daily Mail

"What [Macdonald] has achieved is a very rare thing in literature—a completely realistic account of a human relationship with animal consciousness. . . . Her training of Mabel has the suspense and tension of the here and now. You are gripped by the slightest movement, by the turn of every feather. It is a soaring performance and Mabel is the star." —
John Carey, Sunday Times

"A well-wrought book, one part memoir, one part gorgeous evocation of the natural world and one part literary meditation . . . lit with flashes of grace, a grace that sweeps down to the reader to hold her wrist tight with beautiful, terrible claws. The discovery of the season." —
Erica Wagner, Economist
"Macdonald is a virtuoso writer, and her beautiful, troubling, deeply honest memoir incisively captures our fractured relationship with the natural world.” — The Week

"The magnificent
H is for Hawk [has] grabbed me by its talons . . . [it’s] nature writing, but not as you know it. Astounding." —Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

"It
sings. I couldn’t stop reading." —Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and A Spot of Bother

"This beautiful book is at once heartfelt and clever in the way it mixes elegy with celebration: elegy for a father lost, celebration of a hawk found - and in the finding also a celebration of countryside, forbears of one kind and another, life-in-death. At a time of very distinguished writing about the relationship between human kind and the environment, it is immediately pre-eminent." —
Andrew Motion, author of In the Blood

"A deep, dark work of terrible beauty that will open fissures in the stoniest heart. . . . Macdonald is a survivor . . . she has produced one of the most eloquent accounts of bereavement you could hope to read . . . A grief memoir with wings." —
The Bookseller

"A book made from the heart that goes to the heart . . . It combines old and new nature and human nature with great originality. No one who has looked up to see a bird of prey cross the sky could read it and not have their life shifted." —
Tim Dee, author of The Running Sky

"The most magical book I have ever read." —
Olivia Laing, author of The Trip to Echo Springs

About the Author

HELEN MACDONALD is a writer, poet, illustrator and naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of the bestselling H Is for Hawk, as well as a cultural history of falcons, titled Falcon, and three collections of poetry, including Shaler's Fish. Macdonald was a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge, has worked as a professional falconer, and has assisted with the management of raptor research and conservation projects across Eurasia. She now writes for the New York Times Magazine. Twitter: @HelenJMacdonald

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; First Trade Paper edition (March 8, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802124739
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802124739
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 7,057

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Helen Macdonald
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Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, and naturalist. Before becoming a full-time writer, they worked in raptor research and conservation for many years, then became a historian of science, specialising in the history of natural history, ornithology, and animal behaviour. They are an Affiliated Research Scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. They are best known for the internationally bestselling and prize-winning memoir 'H Is for Hawk', the essay collection 'Vesper Flights', and have also written a cultural history of falcons 'Falcon', and three collections of poetry. Their most recent book is the novel 'Prophet' written in collaboration with Sin Blaché. Helen lives in Suffolk, England, with two parrots known as 'The Bugs."

Customer reviews

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7,057 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2022
In these days of climate change and wholesale destruction of nature, we hang all hopes for the future on nature’s resilience. That resilience is the theme underlying Helen Macdonald’s memoir H Is For Hawk (Grove Press, 2014). Hers is a triangulated story shifting from her father’s death to the life of Arthurian legend writer T.H. White to Macdonald’s training of Mabel the goshawk, the medium-large raptor Accipiter gentilis of the title. If these seem like strange bedfellows, Macdonald makes these transitions smoothly and by the end of the book, weaves a story of personal redemption and self-discovery that is both wise and profound.

T. H. White also wrote a book about raising and training a goshawk, and Macdonald turns to the celebrated author’s book as a guide for her own journey with Mabel. He was not as prepared as Macdonald, and therefore his account is more fraught with difficulty and disappointment. Yet he is a touchstone for Macdonald, a connection to an experience with an animal who has as much to teach her trainer as her trainer has to understand this predatory bird. With a goshawk, however, there is no taming her nature; Macdonald, with great difficulty, simply trains the bird to follow her own instincts as a hunter of prey, and human and hawk learn to work as a unit on the hunt.

Macdonald’s father was a photojournalist who died in 2007. She recounts his passing while on the job, and how she had to go with family members to pick up his belongings and find his car, which had been towed away when he did not return to pick it up while covering his final story. Macdonald was very close to him, and the loss is almost overwhelming. Part of her own training is to learn to live with loss and grief. She recounts how her father taught her patience as the most important virtue. He tells her that one must be willing to stay still and wait for her moment, much like a piece of reindeer moss can survive “just about anything the world throws at it” and remain resilient. It is ironic that she finds herself staring at the moss when her mother informs her of her father’s passing.

The life of an Astringer—a solitary trainer of goshawks and sparrowhawks—is a lonely one, and Macdonald describes her daily life and routines with Mabel in poetic and deeply harmonic language. The setting of the book is the Brecklands, a place known as the broken lands, and the area lives up to its name. She clings to the words of Marianne Moore: “The cure for loneliness is solitude.” She tells us she has learned to hold tight and survive, much like the security of the jesses, leather straps that bind the hawk to the Astringer. Her twin brother did not survive the difficult birth that brought Macdonald into the world.

Macdonald is so good at distilling the wisdom she absorbs from training Mabel. She tells us there are two things she has learned about training hawks: the Astringer must learn to become invisible, and the way to a hawk’s heart is through positive reinforcement with food. Hawks are not social animals like dogs or horses. They are predators, and their predatory nature is bred in their bones. She equates training goshawks with “white-knuckle jobs” as described by her father. These are dangerous journalism assignments. Her father’s defense against the fear is to “look through the viewfinder” and stop being involved. Instead, become the witness. “All that exists is a square of finely ground glass and the world seen through it,” he tells her. His advice in stressful, dangerous situations is to be mindful of “exposure and depth of field and getting the shot you hope for.” Macdonald sees her father’s work in each photograph as “a record, a testament, a bulwark against forgetting, against nothingness, against death.”

Rooted in her father’s philosophy is one that Macdonald also discovers in nature when training Mabel. The world is forever; we are only a blink in its course. Macdonald references Henri Cartier-Bresson, the great French street photographer, and his photographs of a decisive moment. A good photograph means being open to all life offers and in an intuitive moment, click the shutter to capture. If one misses the moment, it is gone forever. Our lesson is to live in that moment—no past, no future, only the here and now.

Throughout the book, Macdonald’s writing is poetic and beautiful. She writes: “There is a time in life when you expect the world to be always full of new things. And then comes a day when you realize that is not how it will be at all. You see that life will become a thing made of holes. Absences. Losses. Things that were there and are no longer. And you realize, too, that you have to grow around and between the gaps, though you can put your hand out to where things were and feel that tense, shining dullness of the space where the memories are.”

She also does not neglect the mythological elements of hawks and falcons, one that has played out over millennia: in ancient shamanic traditions in Eurasian cultures, “hawks and falcons were seen as messengers between this world and the next.” Mabel comes into Helen Macdonald’s life right at a time of need, and in working with this intense and intelligent animal, she finds peace and purpose in her life. She illuminates a culture that most of us never experience: training a fierce and intense goshawk to hunt with her human counterpart. In the end, Macdonald comes to understand the overwhelming grief and loss inherent in this life. Her story is extraordinary and extraordinarily beautiful.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2015
As an armchair falconer, I was really looking forward to reading this much anticipated memoir. It was going to be a story of a woman who writes brilliantly, coupled with a subject that I have always enjoyed. However, in many areas this book fell short for me. Ms. Macdonald has suddenly lost her father, and decides to train a goshawk, most difficult of raptors. Being in this fragile, vulnerable state, she transfers all kinds of significance to the relationship she has with Mabel. Then Ms. Macdonald juxtaposes her experience with T.B. White and his memoir, The Goshawk. White also was working through some emotional problems.
The combination of the two was overwhelming for me. I frequently put the book down, to take a break. Ms. Macdonald is an author, who writes with
eloquence and authority. I learned a lot about the history, ownership, training, and commitment it takes to be a master falconer.
I know what it feels like to grieve, and to immerse yourself in an activity to take the pain away. But no matter how hard you try the pain is still there.
Ms. Macdonald writes beautifully about being with Mabel. When they are out in Nature, each being who they are, there is closeness and understanding. I felt bad when Ms. Macdonald wanted more than Mabel could give her.
It is a unique memoir, beautifully written, but for me it would have been enough to tell the story of her and Mabel.
Having said that, I was fortunate to read another Amazon offering by California author, Jana Barkley. Ms. Barkley, a falconer, has written The Apprentice. I loved this book; great story, propelled by excellent writing and insightful characterizations. Plus, very informative about falconry and the
culture of falconry in California. I could not put this book down. It was a joy to read. I hope there is a sequel.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2017
"H Is for Hawk" is a rather interesting memoir which is based on the writer's unusual skill in and love for the art and skill of falconry. There is a constant thread moving through Helen Macdonald's tale of her case of depression initiated by the death of her beloved father, who had taught her how to raise and train hawks. She goes back to the activity she loves and as her mental state shifts there is also her very attentive care and training of a young hawk woven into a single story of Woman and Hawk.

There were a number of members of our book club who absolutely loved this book and I'm sure are giving it Five Stars, so I have to say that if you think you will like this book, you will probably love it, given the great skill and sensitivities of the author, and find the story of her estrangement from others back to a healthier and happier state, but I did not love it as much as they did. Still, based on the extraordinary love for it at our book club meeting I wanted to give it this recognition.
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