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Raising Hare: A Memoir
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About This Book
A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman's unlikely friendship with a wild hare.Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton's house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.Raising Hare chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness first-hand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.
Reviews
"There is something both wonderfully archaic and utterly contemporary about Chloe Dalton's memoir of finding and raising a baby hare ..."
"A soothing narrative rich with exquisite detail, Dalton enchants."
"A tale of hope, channelled through the enduring and improbable bond between a human and a wild animal."
"A soulful and gracefully written book about an animal's power to rekindle curiosity."
"A sweet and curious meditation on what we gain when we allow the natural world to teach us."
"This book's urge to restore a sense of the sacred, to meet animals on their own terms, and rewild the human imagination."
"Eventually though, during lockdown, she itched to get back to the countryside ("I also knew that life could not stand still, and truthfully, I wanted and needed to go")."
"To divulge much more of the book's arc would rob the reader of its most revealing moments, especially as the hare matures and her priorities shift."
"A plea for people to be gentler with other creatures, to grant them room to live."
"A welcome addition to these stories of transformative, interspecies trust-building ..."
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