Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize Winner of the 2014 Costa Book of the Year Award Shortlisted for the 2014 Duff Cooper Prize Shortlisted for the 2014 Thwaites Wainwright Prize `In real life, goshawks resemble sparrowhawks the way leopards resemble housecats. Bigger, yes. But bulkier, bloodier, deadlier, scarier, and much, much harder to see. Birds of deep woodland, not gardens, they're the birdwatchers' dark grail.' As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and ...
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Winner of the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize Winner of the 2014 Costa Book of the Year Award Shortlisted for the 2014 Duff Cooper Prize Shortlisted for the 2014 Thwaites Wainwright Prize `In real life, goshawks resemble sparrowhawks the way leopards resemble housecats. Bigger, yes. But bulkier, bloodier, deadlier, scarier, and much, much harder to see. Birds of deep woodland, not gardens, they're the birdwatchers' dark grail.' As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including T. H. White's tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes White's struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for ???800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals. `To train a hawk you must watch it like a hawk, and so gain the ability to predict what it will do next. Eventually you don't see the hawk's body language at all. You seem to feel what it feels. The hawk's apprehension becomes your own. As the days passed and I put myself in the hawk's wild mind to tame her, my humanity was burning away.' Destined to be a classic of nature writing, H is for Hawk is a record of a spiritual journey - an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. At the same time, it's a kaleidoscopic biography of the brilliant and troubled novelist T. H. White, best known for The Once and Future King. It's a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to try to reconcile death with life and love.
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Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.20, fair condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.43, good condition, Sold by OnlineGoodwill rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
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Seller's Description:
Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are solid. the cover is intact, but may show scuffs or light creases, as well as a possible rolled corner. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, The former owner may have written their name inside the front or back cover. COVER WILL VARY.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.43, fair condition, Sold by OnlineGoodwill rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Nashville, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are solid. the cover is intact, but may show scuffs or light creases, as well as a possible rolled corner. The spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting, The former owner may have written their name inside the front or back cover. COVER WILL VARY. The cover has curled corners.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.75, good condition, Sold by The Maryland Book Bank rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from baltimore, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.99, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.99, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
Add this copy of H is for Hawk to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by Grove Press.
This book is so good--uplifting while dealing with the difficult subject of death. She writes poetically, beautifully. When lauded books turn out to be as good as, or even better than, the praise, I am captured.
tsunami
Aug 22, 2015
a good read
I enjoyed this book very much, even though I had no previous knowledge of hawking. I took a star off my rating because there are some passages in the book that I thought could have been omitted. I got very weary of hearing about EB White. I wanted more about Ms. MacDonald. The book is superbly written and for that reason alone should be read. It was moving and fascinating.
Katherine H
Jun 8, 2015
Bought for Fathers Day
Couldn't resist reading before gifting. Bought because of our last name.
