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H Is for Hawk

by Helen Macdonald
H Is for Hawk

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ISBN13: 9780802123411
ISBN10: 0802123414
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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From Powells.com

Staff Top Fives 2015

Our favorite books of the year.


Staff Pick

Shocked by her father's unexpected death, lifelong falconer Helen Macdonald decides to take on training the fearsome goshawk, considered amongst the most difficult birds to train. This beautifully written and touching memoir traverses the obscure world of falconry to living through grief, ending up in a place of hope and recovery. Recommended By Jen C., Powells.com

This book is a beautifully conceived memoir that revolves around a woman and her attempt at softening the devastation of her father's death by training a goshawk. With poetic writing, MacDonald eloquently portrays her ever-changing emotions in the presence of this hawk. From the bestial dance of the hunt to the philosophical questioning of the brutality of its consummation, MacDonald examines the frailty of our minds as well as our flesh. Anyone who has lost a close family member and/or trained an animal can relate to MacDonald's train of thought as she reflects on various aspects of man's relationship with nature and the surrounding world. Recommended By PaulJ, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize

Named the Costa Book of the Year

#1 best-seller in the UK

A Guardian and Economist Best Book of the Year

When Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer — Helen had been captivated by hawks since childhood — she'd never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators, the goshawk. But in her grief, she saw that the goshawk's fierce and feral temperament mirrored her own. Resolving to purchase and raise the deadly creature as a means to cope with her loss, she adopted Mabel, and turned to the guidance of The Once and Future King author T.H. White's chronicle The Goshawk to begin her challenging endeavor. Projecting herself "in the hawk's wild mind to tame her" tested the limits of Macdonald's humanity and changed her life.

Heart-wrenching and humorous, this book is an unflinching account of bereavement and a unique look at the magnetism of an extraordinary beast, with a parallel examination of a legendary writer's eccentric falconry. Obsession, madness, memory, myth, and history combine to achieve a distinctive blend of nature writing and memoir from an outstanding literary innovator.

Review

"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

"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

Review

"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." Financial Times

Review

"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." Guardian

About the Author

Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, illustrator, historian, and naturalist, and 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. Twitter: @HelenJMacdonald

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.5 (2 comments)

`
David Jordan , February 01, 2016 (view all comments by David Jordan)
This was one of those rare occasions where I had no clear idea about what I was to read when I opened this book. In fact, I erroneously assumed this was a novel, as I had paid very little attention to reviews or information about the author. About a third of the way in, I began to marvel at the depth of information provided on the topic of training a hawk. I flipped to the author bio at the back of the book to try to get some idea who she was and how this gifted writer could capture with such amazing detail the process involved in this activity. I was surprised to discover that I was in fact reading a memoir of Macdonald's grief over her father's sudden death and the process of working through that grief with this amazing animal. My knowledge of falconry, which was pretty close to zero, has now increased exponentially. What an enjoyable and fascinating book.

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`
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review , March 20, 2015 (view all comments by Lory @ Emerald City Book Review)
H Is for Hawk does what many of my favorite non-fiction books do: it makes connections between things and ideas that are surprising and genuine and painful, enriching us by raising our experience of life to a new level of consciousness. It reminds us what it means to be human, and stretches the limits of that definition. The primary connection here is between Macdonald's grief following the death of her father, and her decision to take on the training of a goshawk, a notoriously difficult task. Many other threads come into play, too, notably a reconsideration of T.H. White's book The Goshawk, and of its brilliant, wounded author. There's a unique angle on history, too; the practice of falconry goes back to the dawn of civilization, and speaks to many of our most primal impulses and fears, casting light both on our hunger to survive, and on our impulse toward warfare and destruction. Part of the fascination of falconry is that it evokes the age-old ritual magic of the hunter, who would put on skins or draw an animal over and over to try to become one with its essence. In her intense, grief-spurred communion with Mabel, her goshawk, Macdonald experiences the pull of this totemic magic. In vivid, striking prose she makes us feel what it is like to dissolve some of one's humanity into the vastness of nature. But that is not, and cannot be the whole story, as she concludes: "In my time with Mabel I've learned how you feel more human once you have known, even in your imagination, what it is like to be not." Her words enable us to go on that journey as well, and to emerge with a new perspective on grass, stones, trees, the complex web of all living and breathing things. And as in her sorrow Helen lives and identifies with this alien creature, she finds her way back to who she is and how she can re-enter a life that seemed altogether broken. It's an intimate, tender, fierce story, as beautiful and dangerous as the hawk that glows at its center. Originally reviewed at The Emerald City Book Review (emeraldcitybookreview.com)

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780802123411
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
03/03/2015
Publisher:
GROVE PRESS (NY)
Pages:
300
Height:
8.75
Width:
6.00
Thickness:
1.25
Editor:
Helen MacDonald
Author:
Helen MacDonald
Subject:
Nature Studies-Birds

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